page_title: Geography of Croatia
section_title: Hydrography
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Croatia / Physical geography / Hydrography
caption_attribution_description: Željeznički most Zagreb
context_page_description: The Geography of Croatia is defined by its location—it is described as a part of Central Europe and Southeast Europe, a part of the Balkans and Mitteleuropa. Croatia's territory covers 56,594 km², making it the 127th largest country in the world. Bordered by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in the east, Slovenia in the west, Hungary in the north and Montenegro and the Adriatic Sea in the south, it lies mostly between latitudes 42° and 47° N and longitudes 13° and 20° E. Croatia's territorial waters encompass 18,981 square kilometres in a 12 nautical miles wide zone, and its internal waters located within the baseline cover an additional 12,498 square kilometres.
  The Pannonian Basin and the Dinaric Alps, along with the Adriatic Basin, represent major geomorphological parts of Croatia. Lowlands make up the bulk of Croatia, with elevations of less than 200 metres above sea level recorded in 53.42% of the country. Most of the lowlands are found in the northern regions, especially in Slavonia, itself a part of the Pannonian Basin plain. The plains are interspersed with horst and graben structures, believed to have broken the Pliocene Pannonian Sea's surface as islands.
context_section_description: The largest part of Croatia—62% of its territory—is encompassed by the Black Sea drainage basin. The area includes the largest rivers flowing in the country: the Danube, Sava, Drava, Mura and Kupa. The rest belongs to the Adriatic Sea drainage basin, where the largest river by far is the Neretva. The longest rivers in Croatia are the 562-kilometre (349 mi) Sava, 505-kilometre (314 mi) Drava, 296-kilometre (184 mi) Kupa and a 188-kilometre (117 mi) section of the Danube. The longest rivers emptying into the Adriatic Sea are the 101-kilometre (63 mi) Cetina and an only 20-kilometre (12 mi) section of the Neretva.
  The largest lakes in Croatia are 30.7-square-kilometre (11.9 sq mi) Lake Vrana located in the northern Dalmatia, 17.1-square-kilometre (6.6 sq mi) Lake Dubrava near Varaždin, 13.0-square-kilometre (5.0 sq mi) Peruća Lake (reservoir) on the Cetina River, 11.1-square-kilometre (4.3 sq mi) Lake Prokljan near Skradin and 10.1-square-kilometre (3.9 sq mi) Lake Varaždin reservoir through which the Drava River flows near Varaždin. Croatia's most famous lakes are the Plitvice lakes, a system of 16 lakes with waterfalls connecting them over dolomite and limestone cascades. The lakes are renowned for their distinctive colours, ranging from turquoise to mint green, grey or blue. Croatia has a remarkable wealth in terms of wetlands. Four of those are included in the Ramsar list of internationally important wetlands: Lonjsko Polje along the Sava and Lonja rivers near Sisak, Kopački Rit at the confluence of the Drava and Danube, the Neretva Delta and Crna Mlaka near Jastrebarsko.
  Average annual precipitation and evaporation rates are 1,162 millimetres (45.7 in) and 700 millimetres (28 in), respectively. Taking into consideration the overall water balance, the total Croatian water resources amount to 25,163 cubic metres (888,600 cu ft) per year per capita, including 5,877 cubic metres (207,500 cu ft) per year per capita from sources inside Croatia.
caption: Sava, the longest river in Croatia
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