The Uvac ( sr-cyrl, Увац) is an international trans-boundary river, rising under

Golija Golija ( sr-Cyrl, Голија, ) is a mountain in southwestern Serbia, between towns of Ivanjica and Novi Pazar. It is part of the Dinaric mountain range. The mountain is heavily forested with significant biodiversity. It contains the Golija-Stu ...

mountain and Pešter plateau, then flowing through southwestern

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

and cross into eastern

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

where, after 115 km, it finally meets the

Lim river The Lim (Serbian Cyrillic: Лим, ) is a river that flows through Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and is long.

from the right, however, before it empties into the Lim, for a 10 kilometers Uvac forms the border between two countries. Also, while meandering through Serbia, Uvac loosely makes the northern border of the Raška region, too.

Upper course

The Uvac originates at the Pešter plateau from the Ozren and

Ninaja Ninaja (Serbian Cyrillic: Нинаја) is a mountain in southwestern Serbia, between cities of Novi Pazar and Sjenica Sjenica ( sr-cyr, Сјеница, ) is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of southwestern Serbia. The pop ...

mountains, as ''Rasanska reka'' (Cyrillic: ''Расанска река''). The stream curves around the Ninaja and Pometenik mountains, next to the villages of Tuzinje, Rasno, Dragojloviće and Gradac, where it meets ''Brnjička reka'' (Cyrillic: ''Брњичка река''), enters the Sjenica depression and continues on the western border of the plain while receiving the right tributary

Vapa VAMP-Associated Protein A ( or Vesicle-Associated Membrane Protein-Associated Protein A) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''VAPA'' gene. Together with VAPB and VAPC it forms the VAP protein family. They are integral endoplasmic retic ...

(Cyrillic: ''Вапа'') in the northern end. ''Vapa'' is 25 kilometers long and drains an area of 496 km². It passes next to the villages of Gornja Vapa, Donja Vapa, Čedovo and Krstac, where it empties from the right into the shorter river Uvac.

Lower course

The Uvac continues to the northwest, enters the Stari Vlah region where it flows in a deep, canyon-like valley, where it receives the ''Kladnica'' river from the right and generates much power, which is used for three powerful hydroelectric power stations, each one with big artificial lake: ''Bistrica'' with Lake Radoinja, '' Kokin Brod'' with

Zlatar Lake Zlatar Lake ( sr, / ) is an artificial lake located among the mountains of Zlatibor and Zlatar (mountain) 15 km from the town of Nova Varoš. The lake was created in the 1960s after the construction of a dam on the Uvac river, and covers a ...

(7,3 km², altitude 400 m, depth 40 m) and ''Sjenica'' with Lake Sjenica. In the lowest part of its course, the Uvac flows between the Zlatar and Zlatibor mountains, next to the villages of Kokin Brod and Radoinja until it reaches the Bosnian border and Varda mountain, makes a sharp, elbow turn to the south and after a short flow next to the villages of Bjelušine and Uvac (both on Bosnian side), the Uvac empties into the Lim, north of the city of Priboj. The Uvac drains an area of 1,596 km², belongs to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

, and it is not navigable. Its average discharge at the mouth is 18 m³/s. The river is famous for its gorge, ''Kanjon Uvca'', the thriving colony of reintroduced griffon vultures and the

Uvac Special Nature Reserve , iucn_category = IV , photo = In_the_mirror_of_the_river_Uvac.jpg , photo_caption = The bridge over Uvac , location = , nearest_city = Nova Varoš, Sjenica , map = Serbia , relief = 1 , map_caption = Uvac Nature Reserve , coords = , a ...

, protected since 1971. The river meanders wildly: though long, the straight line from the river's source to its mouth is only .

References

Sources

* ''Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija'', Third edition (1985); Prosveta; * Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): ''Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije''; Svjetlost-Sarajevo;

External links

Uvac Special Nature Reserve
Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Rivers of Serbia Nature reserves in Serbia {{BosniaHerzegovina-river-stub