Daugava

The drainage basin of the Daugava

Daugava
Latvia
Other name(s)	Western Dvina, Russian: Западная Двина (Západnaya Dviná), Belarusian: Заходняя Дзвіна ([zaˈxodnʲaja dzʲvʲiˈna]), Livonian: Vēna, German: Düna
Country	Belarus, Latvia, Russia, Lithuania, Estonia
Physical characteristics
Main source	Valdai Hills, Russia 221 m (725 ft)
River mouth	Gulf of Riga, Baltic Sea 0 m (0 ft)
Length	1,020 km (630 mi)[1]
Discharge	Average rate: 678 m3/s (23,900 cu ft/s)
Basin features
Basin size	87,900 km2 (33,900 sq mi)[1]

Daugava flowing through Riga in Latvia

Daugava sunset in Riga.

The Swedish army bombarding the fortress of Daugavgriva at the Daugava's estuary in Latvia.

The Daugava (Latgalian: Daugova) or Western Dvina is a river rising in the Valdai Hills, flowing through Russia, Belarus, and Latvia and into the Gulf of Riga. The total length of the river is 1,020 km (630 mi):^[1] 325 km (202 mi) in Russia

Geography

The total catchment area of the river is 87,900 km² (33,900 sq mi), 33,150 km² (12,800 sq mi) of which are within Belarus.^[1]

Etymology

According to the Max Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary, the toponym Dvina clearly cannot stem from a Uralic language, and it possibly comes from Indo-European word which used to mean river or stream.^[2]

Environment

The river began experiencing environmental deterioration in the era of Soviet collective agriculture (producing considerable adverse water pollution runoff) and a wave of hydroelectric power projects.^[3]

Cities, towns and settlements

History

Humans have settled at the mouth of the Daugava and around the other shores of the Gulf of Riga for millennia, initially participating in a hunter-gatherer economy and utilizing the waters of the Daugava estuary as fishing and gathering areas for aquatic biota. Beginning around the sixth century AD, Viking explorers crossed the Baltic Sea and entered the Daugava River, navigating upriver into the Baltic interior.^[4]

In medieval times the Daugava was an important area of trading and navigation - part of the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks - for transport of furs from the north and of Byzantine silver from the south. The Riga area became a key element of settlement and defence of the mouth of the Daugava at least as early as the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the now destroyed fort at Torņakalns on the west bank of the Daugava at present day Riga. Since the Late Middle Ages the western part of the Daugava basin has come under the rule of various peoples and states; for example the Latvian town of Daugavpils, located on the western Daugava, variously came under papal rule as well as Slavonic, Polish, German and Russian sway until restoration of the Latvian independence in 1990 at the end of the Cold War.

Water quality

Upstream of the Latvian town of Jekabpils the pH has a characteristic value of about 7.8; in this reach the calcium ion has a typical concentration of around 43 milligrams per liter; nitrate has a concentration of about 0.82 milligrams per liter (as nitrogen); phosphate ion is measured at 0.038 milligrams per liter; and oxygen saturation was measured at eighty percent. The high nitrate and phosphate load of the Daugava is instrumental to the buildup of extensive phytoplankton biomass in the Baltic Sea; other European rivers contributing to such high nutrient loading of the Baltic are the Oder and Vistula Rivers.

In Belarus, water pollution of the Daugava is considered moderately severe, with the chief sources being treated wastewater, fish-farming and agricultural chemical runoff (e.g. herbicides, pesticides, nitrate and phosphate).

References

Further reading

• Richard C. Frucht; Aldis Purs. Latvia. Eastern Europe. ABC-CLIO. p. 115. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
• Francis W. Carter and David Turnock. 2002. Environmental problems of East Central Europe. 442 pages Google eBook

External links

• Daugava River photos at flickr

Coordinates: 57°3′42″N 24°1′50″E / 57.06167°N 24.03056°E / 57.06167; 24.03056

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daugava.