2016

A Review of Conflicts
Associated with the Issues of
Urban Development on the
River Danube

Student B
GESS I&S Class 9A
12/2/2016
Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 2
2. RIVER SYSTEM OVERVIEW .......................................................................... 3
2.1 Map of the river system ...................................................................... 3
2.2 Key characteristics ........................................................................... 4
3. RIVER SYSTEM ISSUES .............................................................................. 5
3.1 Identification of key issues .................................................................. 5
3.2 Causes of key issues .......................................................................... 5
3.3 Who is affected by key issues ............................................................... 5
4. MANAGEMENT STRATEGY .......................................................................... 7
4.1 Recommendations ............................................................................ 7
4.2 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 8
REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 9

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

1. INTRODUCTION
The river Danube is one of the most known rivers in Europe. It is the second longest river
in Europe right after the Volga and, passing through 10 countries (ICPDR), the river that
goes through the most different territories. The river is a very important resource to these
countries.

During the past years, the river has flooded many times. Major floods occurred in the
years 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 (ICPDR) and, very recently, in May 2016
(FAZ). These floods have left behind devastating effects on many people and their homes
as well as the environment.

In this report, I will first analyse the Danube river system and describe its features. I will
then state the problem around this river system and identify the causes for the problem.
Finally, I will suggest some possible solutions to the problem.

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

2. RIVER SYSTEM OVERVIEW

2.1 Map of the river system

This is a map of the entire Danube river system from source to mouth. The area outside
the catchment basin is greyed out. The river is clearly highlighted on this map.

The river starts in the black forest in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Breg and
Brigach. The confluence is located near Donaueschingen. The river ends in the Danube
delta, located in Romania, and flows into the Black Sea.

The Danube is usually split into three sections based on the slope of the river. The area
with the steepest slope is called the upper basin, the area in the middle is called the
middle basin and the area near the delta and the black sea is called the lower Danube
basin.

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

This map shows more of the tributaries as well as showing the areas of the river that flood
most often. The map shows how often a part of the Danube floods in a range of more than
100 years to less than 20 years, yellow being most often and purple being the least.
This map gives a very good overview of the areas where the most flooding happens. As can
be seen from the map, the most flooding occurs in the upper basin in Austria, the Czech
Republic and Germany.

2.2 Key characteristics

The river Danube is the second longest river in Europe after the Volga. It has a length of
about 2850km, its basin spans an area of over 800000km2 and it runs through 10 different
countries (ICPDR). It also runs through the capitals of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia
(Encyclopedia Britannica). The Danube has an average discharge into the Black Sea of
7000m3/s (ICPDR).

There are 8 main tributaries that confluence with the river Danube (Alexandra Cotoi). The
first main tributary is the Inn. Its confluence point is in Passau and it discharges the third
most amount of water into the Danube. The second main tributary is the river Morava
which has its confluence near the city Bratislava. Another tributary is the Drava. It flows
into the Danube near the city Osijek. The river Tisza is the longest tributary of the
Danube. This tributary joins the river Danube in Vojvodina, Serbia. The second longest
tributary of the Danube is the Sava. This river flows into the Danube at the Great War
Island in Serbia.

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

3. RIVER SYSTEM ISSUES

3.1 Identification of key issues
The main issue around the river are the repeated floods. The areas that flood the most are
around the Danube in southern Germany and Austria. The most recent floods occurred in
2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 (ICPDR) and in May of 2016 (FAZ).

3.2 Causes of key issues

One of the main reasons the river floods so often is the change in the way the land is used.
Over the past years there has been much urban development in the areas around the
river. Many cities have been built and expanded. These cities are built from solid concrete
and steel.

The reason that this is a problem for the river is that these built-up areas make the ground
impermeable which means that rainwater cant flow into the ground. In areas with
permeable soil the water can flow into the ground through infiltration and run slowly
below the surface as through flow. It can also become part of the groundwater through
percolation and flow even slower. In the case of a heavy rainfall only some water runs
directly into the river as surface run-off and most of the water reaches the river slowly
over time and no flood occurs.

When the water cant infiltrate the ground as would be the case in most urban areas it
would all go directly to the river as surface run-off. In case of heavy rainfall this means
that the river would rapidly overflow as the rainwater reaches it almost immediately.

Another problem of the development of cities is that to sustain a city a lot of area for
farming is needed. The area around a river is also ideal for farming as the river leaves
behind fertile sediment that is great for plants to grow. However, through farming a large
area is cleared. The plants that were in this area are important to help intercept the
rainwater and to transpire it. The plants that are farmed such as corn or wheat do not
intercept the water very well and it goes straight to the ground.

3.3 Who is affected by key issues

This issue affects a great number of people around the river. The most obvious group is
the people that live near the river in areas that are prone to flooding such as southern
Germany. The homes of many people have been destroyed through the sheer force of the
water. If a home isnt destroyed the flood usually leaves behind sediment in the form of
silt and sand. In 2016 the homes of over 5000 people in southern Germany were affected
by the flood of the Danube. At least 500 homes were destroyed (FAZ).

Another effect of a flood is that roads can be washed away by a powerful flood. Other
times a flood may leave behind sediment that blocks roads. This is a problem for the
people living around the river as help cant reach them as easily and as they cant go to
another, safer area.

The people that rely on the river as a source of their income, such as fishers, are also
affected by repeated flooding. Boats can be washed away or broken by a strong flood. The
fish in the river can, through the flood, either be washed away or become stranded on the
land after the flood.

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

The environment is also affected by the river. Through flooding many plants near the
Danube are simply washed away. This also has the side effect of destroying the habitats of
many animals that live around the river. The environment is usually able to recover,
though, as the land becomes very fertile after a flood due to the mineral-rich silt that it
carries.

A flood doesnt only affect the environment near the river, though. Through flooding many
nutrients can get into the water and be transported towards the ocean. These nutrients
can be dangerous to the corals that grow there. The river could also cause a leak of
poisonous substances, for example from a factory. These would also be transported
further downstream by the river and harm the environment in other places.

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

4. MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
4.1 Recommendations
One solution to the problem of these repeated floods would be to build a dam. A dam is
used to control the amount of water that flows through a river. A dam is usually a large
wall with a reservoir behind it that the river flows into. The water is let out into the river
at the front in a controlled amount. A dam can also be used to generate energy from the
potential energy of the water when it flows downward.

However, a dam also has many problems. For example, the fish and other animals that live
in the river cannot pass a dam. This prevents them from migrating to other areas as they
usually do. A dam is also very expensive to build. Besides the estimated cost usually being
high, the actual cost is usually about 56% (International Rivers) higher. The energy that a
dam creates are also not without problems. The energy that is created depends very much
on the rainfall in the river basin. Especially through climate change, this can be very
irregular and so would the energy that is generated. Furthermore, the dam would restrict
the access to the Danubes water in countries further down the river for various purposes,
which they would likely not be fine with. A dam also causes silt that was transported by
the river to build up at the dam wall. If this silt builds up too much it could block the dam
or even cause it to break. Finally, in the case that the dam does overflow or break, the
effects could be even more devastating than without the dam as there would be much
more water.

Another solution would be to build embankments along the side of the river in the areas
that are flooded most frequently. Embankments are a sloped wall of earth and stone. This
is used to raise the depth of a river so it overflows less quickly as there is more space for
water.

Embankments also have problems. There are plans to build embankments in India which
are widely debated and for good reasons (India Water Portal). First off, it is, again, quite
expensive to build embankments. The embankments would also have to be built in a large
area for them to be effective as, otherwise, the river would just flow around them. If an
embankment breaks, as with a dam, even more water is released and the effects could be
much more devastating. Besides this embankments also restrict the peoples access to the
river.

Implementing flood warning systems would also be an option. These work by predicting
floods with weather patterns and patterns in the river level and discharge. This allows
people to be warned about a potential flood early and allows them to prepare or move to
another area before the flood.

However, this would only solve part of the problem. Harm to humans can be prevented
using this strategy but their homes and belongings may still be destroyed. The
environment is also not protected by this strategy. The system may also predict a flood
even if there is no flood. There is also the possibility of a failure in the system which could
cause it to not warn about a flood.

A more obvious solution would be to stop expanding cities and to use less area for
agriculture. This would mean that the water can be intercepted by plant life and enter
the ground water again.

Even this strategy has problems though. The human population is constantly increasing and
with it the size and density of cities as more and more people move to a city. As a citys

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

size increases so does the demand for agricultural products. A better approach would be
to just keep this concern in mind while expanding cities and building things like parks that
can help reduce the amount of surface runoff.

4.2 Conclusion
In conclusion, the floods around the river Danube are a major problem. It affects many
people as well as the environment near the flooded area as well as further away.

There are many ways to go about solving this problem but they all have problems of their
own. Building a dam would be expensive and could even lead to worse floods. The same
applies for embankments. Just not expanding cities or using less land for agriculture is also
not an option as the human population increases. It would be possible to reduce the effect
of this by, for example, building more parks and leaving more forests untouched but this
only contributes very little.

The best option would be to use a combination of these strategies that satisfies all the
requirements. Cost, effectiveness, casualties and other impacts of different solutions all
need to be considered when designing a plan to prevent the floods.

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Report on the River Danube Student B, GESS I&S Class 9A

REFERENCES
Liska, Igor, and Zoran Major. Floods in June 2013 in the Danube River Basin. ICPDR,
www.icpdr.org/main/sites/default/files/nodes/documents/icpdr_floods-report-
web_0.pdf. Accessed 7 December 2016.

River Basin. River Basin | ICPDR - International Commission for the Protection of the
Danube River, ICPDR, www.icpdr.org/main/danube-basin/river-basin. Accessed 7
December 2016.

Danube River. Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Encyclopedia Britannica,

global.britannica.com/place/Danube-River. Accessed 8 December 2016.

Floods. Floods | ICPDR - International Commission for the Protection of the Danube
River, ICPDR, www.icpdr.org/main/issues/floods. Accessed 8 December 2016.

Danube + Floods. Danube + Floods, Danube +,

danube.panda.org/wwf/web/search/details.jsp?pid=69. Accessed 9 December 2016.

Human Impacts. Human Impacts | ICPDR - International Commission for the Protection
of the Danube River, ICPDR, www.icpdr.org/main/issues/human-impacts. Accessed 9
December 2016.
Niederbayern: Mehr Als Eine Milliarde Euro Schaden Durch Flutwelle. Mehr Als Eine
Milliarde Euro Schaden Durch Flutwelle, FAZ, 4 June 2016,
www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/ungluecke/mehr-als-eine-milliarde-schaden-durch-
flutwelle-14269803.html. Accessed 9 December 2016.

Danube Map | Danube River. Danube Map | Danube River, 2009, www.danube-
river.com/maps/danube. Accessed 20 December 2016.

Danubemap.jpg. Danubemap.jpg, Wikimedia,

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Danubemap.jpg. Accessed 10 January
2016.

Danube River. Danube River, 2009, www.danube-river.com/. Accessed 11 January 2016.

Cotoi, Alexandra. Danube River's Main Tributaries. Danube River's Main Tributaries,
alexandracotoi.tripod.com/thedanuberiverandthedanubedelta/id2.html. Accessed 13
January 2016.

Kneffel, Peter. Europe Floods. 130603231214-Europe-Floods-2-Horizontal-Gallery.jpg,

CNN, i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130603231214-europe-floods-2-horizontal-
gallery.jpg. Accessed 13 January 2016.

Kottasova, Ivana et al. Floods Bring Misery to Central Europe. CNN, Cable News
Network, 4 June 2013, edition.cnn.com/2013/06/04/world/europe/europe-flood/.
Accessed 13 January 2016.

Economic Impacts of Dams. Economic Impacts of Dams | International Rivers,

International Rivers, www.internationalrivers.org/economic-impacts-of-dams. Accessed 14
January 2016.

Waugh, David, and Tony Bushell. New Key Geography for GCSE. Cheltenham, Nelson
Thornes, 2007. Accessed 14 January 2016. Accessed 18 January 2016. Mishra, Dinesh.

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Mishra, Dinesh. Embankments: Engineering Solutions or Problems? Embankments:

Engineering Solutions or Problems?, India Water Portal, 2 Mar. 2015,
www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/embankments-engineering-solutions-or-problems.
Accessed 18 January 2016.

Accessed 18 January 2016. Source &Amp; Course of the Danube. Source &Amp; Course
of the Danube | Danube River, Danube River, www.danube-river.com/danube-
river/source-and-course-of-the-danube. Accessed 19 January 2016.

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