Dravinja River

The Dravinja River is the largest tributary of the Drava River in Slovenia. It rises south of Rogla on Pohorje at an altitude of about 1,200 meters. It has several springs, all located below Rogla, at about 1,150 m above sea level. Until the town of Loče it flows in a southeast direction, then turns northeast. It flows into the Drava 8 km from Ptuj near the village of Videm pri Ptuju, at an altitude of 210 m. Thus the relative difference in elevation between the source and the mouth is 940 m.

The total length of the river is 73 km, while all its tributaries together measure 1,361 km. The size of the catchment area, from which surface waters flow, is 817.4 km². The steep gradient in the upper hilly part quickly decreases at the transition to the tertiary landscape of the Dravinjske Gorice. Near Zreče, the Dravinja has only a 17‰ gradient. Due to the reduced slope in the hilly part, the watercourses begin to meander.

In its upper course, the Dravinja is torrential, which is especially evident during heavy storms, and it flows through deeply incised ravines. Along with other Pohorje streams, it carries a lot of water and often floods, destroying bridges and transport routes along its bed. It also has significant hydroelectric potential. High water occurs in the spring months, due to snowmelt, and in the autumn, due to the secondary rainfall maximum. In the southeastern part of Pohorje also rise some tributaries of the Dravinja, such as the Čadramščica, Ložnica, Oplotnica, Bistrica, Devina, and Polskava.