Česma is a river in central Croatia, a left tributary of the river Lonja-Trebež. It is long, and its catchment area is . Created by merging

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

s ''Grđevica'' and ''Barna'' at near the village of

Pavlovac Pavlovac can refer to several places: ;In Bosnia and Herzegovina * Pavlovac, Banja Luka * Pavlovac, Pale *Pavlovac (fortress) The Pavlovac Castle ( sr-cyrl, Павловац) was a noble court and one of the largest and most important fortified ...

in the municipality of Veliki Grđevac. Česma basin is fan-shaped and formed by a number of

s rising on the slopes of

Bilogora Bilogora (Bilo-gora, or ''Bilogorje'', ''Bilo-gorje'') is a low mountainous range in Central Croatia. It consists of a series of hills and small plains some 80 kilometres in length stretching in the direction northwest-southeast, along the southwest ...

and

Moslavačka gora Moslavačka Gora is a small mountain range located in central Croatia at the borders of Bjelovar-Bilogora County and Sisak–Moslavina County. They belong to the sunken boulder Highlands of palaeogeological origin, rich in mineral resources (gran ...

hills. Southern sides of Bilogora slightly goes downhill, rugged with numerous ravines and gullies, steeply and deeply cut in. On the sides appears numerous

springs Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

, that in the dry part of the year losing water. It has a small drop (small difference in altitude between the source and the mouth) which was causing frequent floods before the regulation of the

riverbed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow (channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks, during all but flood st ...

. The area around the watercourse of Česma till a hundred years ago was subject of flooding, which is why it was

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

y. After that, Česma river and its tributaries was

channelized Channelized in a telecommunications environment means that the line that communications have been transmitted over contains more than one message thread, separated in some fashion. Typical channelization methods include packetizing, frequency-d ...

, embankments were built for flood protection, and the soil is

dried Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This process is often used as a final production step before selling or packaging products. To be consider ...

to obtain arable land as well as the fight against malaria. At the site of former wetlands now are

fish pond A fish pond or fishpond is a controlled pond, small artificial lake or retention basin that is stocked with fish and is used in aquaculture for fish farming, for recreational fishing, or for ornamental purposes. Fish ponds are a classical g ...

s that supply water from streams that flows into the Česma river. These ponds are one of the last refuge of wading birds between the

Drava The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...

and Sava rivers. Along Česma river there are several major fish farming complexes. North of Česma

— ''ribnjačastvo Dubrava'', and along the southern coast fish ponds — ''Siščani'', ''Blatnica'' and ''Narta''. Both complexes are spread at about 5 kilometers along the course Česma river, and environment are similar. They are about 5 kilometers away to each other. The total area covered by commercial fish ponds is .Prostorni plan Bjelovarsko – bilogorske županije
(Spatial plan of Bjelovar-Bilogora County)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cesma Rivers of Croatia