River
Buna
40 km from source to mouth · Albania and Montenegro.
Albania and MontenegroFlows into Adriatic Sea10th longest in Albania
In numbers
Length
40km
Average flow
680m³/s
Basin
20,000km²
Drop
0m
from -3 m to -3 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
40 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLake Skadarat -3 m
- 0 kmShkodër95,553 people
- 0 kmLake Skadar381 km²
- 0 kmOld bridge over the Buna river in Shkodër
- 1 kmnew swing bridge over the Buna river in Shkodër
- 40 kmDrintributary
- 40 kmAdriatic Seaat -3 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Albania and Montenegro
At the mouth it carries 682 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.7 seconds. Its basin covers 20,000 km², about the size of SI. 1.6 million people live in it. Highest water: from December to February; lowest: from June to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (32% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- ShkodërLargest city on its banks · 95,553 people
- Podgorica Airport / Podgorica Golubovci Airbase (TGD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 39 km from the cityCar hire at TGD airport (Podgorica)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Buna, month by month
Highest water: from December to February
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 210 m³/s in the lowest month to 950 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Buna: the basin in numbers
17,226 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.6millionpeople live in the basin
- 93/km²people per km²
- 871maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,153mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.6°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 5.0%covered by lakes
- 4.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 27% Forest
- 28% Cropland
- 19% Pasture
- 4% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Buna: what you find on the way
- 1Ferry piersTrageti Venezia
- 1Marinas
- 1River beachesAda Bojana Plaža
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Buna in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
7beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
53mountains at the sourcePeakyas
3islands off the mouthIslandyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Skadarkm 0 · 44 m deep381km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (7)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Plazhi i Shëngjinit19 km away25.1°C
- Plazhi i Velipojës4.2 km away25.1°C
- Luka Milena13 km away · cove25.2°C
- Uvala Velika19 km away · cove25.2°C
- Uvala Crnogorsko Gumno20 km away · cove25.2°C
- Uvala Udovica24 km away · cove25.2°C
- Uvala Vučja Jama22 km away · cove25.2°C
Mountains at the source (53)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Tarabosh2.5 km away · prominence 40 m593m
- Maja e Taraboshit2.5 km away543m
- Mali i Jushit15 km away264m
- Maja e Tabia e Vogel8.1 km away171m
- Maja e Margjeles14 km away127m
- Maja e Suka e Dajcit13 km away115m
- Maja e Visit5.0 km away89m
- Maja e Shllimit9.9 km away70m
45 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
Islands off the mouth (3)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Kunë Island20 km away1.4km²
- Stari Ulcinj25 km away
- Shaqari Island24 km away
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Buna in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
KosovoNearby
Rivers nearby
Albania280 km350 m³/s0 km awayMatAlbania115 km100 m³/s28 km awayMoračaMontenegro99 km15 m³/s48 km awayShkumbinAlbania181 km620 m³/s92 km awayCem RiverMontenegro62 km260 m³/s58 km awayBlack DrinAlbania177 km50 m³/s89 km awayWhite DrinAlbania175 km56 m³/s89 km awayRibnicaMontenegro57 km67 m³/s66 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q372490) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Coastya, Peakyas, Islandyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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