River
Kupa
297 km from source to mouth · Croatia and Slovenia.
Croatia and SloveniaFlows into Sava3rd longest in Croatia
In numbers
Length
297km
Average flow
280m³/s
Basin
10,032km²
Drop
145m
from 238 m to 93 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
297 km of river and 12 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 238 m
- 23 kmNežica
- 104 kmLahinjatributary
- 106 kmMetlika3,206 people
- 142 kmDobratributary
- 145 kmDrežnik Viaduct
- 148 kmKarlovac41,869 people
- 153 kmKoranatributary
- 182 kmKupčinatributary
- 224 kmGlinatributary
- 261 kmPetrinja12,963 people
- 280 kmOdratributary
- 283 kmSisak27,859 people
- 297 kmSavaat 93 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Croatia and Slovenia
At the mouth it carries 283 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.8 seconds. It drops from 238 m to 93 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 10,032 km², about the size of LB. 2.5 million people live in it. Highest water: from November to January. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KarlovacLargest city on its banks · 41,869 people
- Zagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 49 km from the cityCar hire at ZAG airport (Velika Gorica)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water8 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe13 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Kupa, month by month
Highest water: from November to January
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 160 m³/s in the lowest month to 590 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
Kupa: the basin in numbers
18,974 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 134/km²people per km²
- 418maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,141mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.5°Caverage air temperature
- 25%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 63% Forest
- 12% Cropland
- 19% Pasture
- 7% 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
Kupa: what you find on the way
- 23WeirsKupski slapovi and 22 more
- 21WaterfallsNežica, Pobrežje and 19 more
- 12Rapids
- 1Canoe put-ins
- 7Boat rampsSpodnja Bilpa, Vrt, Slapiček (Start Kayak Point Radenci) and 4 more
- 1Ferry piers
- 7River beachesPritiske, Radenci - Mlin, Graba and 4 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kupa 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
14mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Nežicakm 22
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (14)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Risnjak8.4 km away1,528m
- Veliki Risnjak8.4 km away1,528m
- Sjeverni Mali Risnjak7.5 km away1,434m
- Sušica15 km away1,411m
- Veliki Drgomalj9.8 km away1,154m
- Kapič11 km away905m
- Vršič13 km away820m
- Snježnik9.9 km away
6 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Kupa in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Sava
Serbia945 km1,700 m³/sTributaries (7)
Also: Dobra, Odra, Glina, Čabranka, Lahinja, Kupčina
Romania
Germany
Moldova
AustriaNearby
Rivers nearby
Croatia207 km200 m³/s43 km awaySana
Bosnia and Herzegovina146 km69 m³/s41 km awayMurCroatia434 km170 m³/s97 km awayKoranaCroatia144 km86 m³/s71 km awayVrbasBosnia and Herzegovina240 km33 m³/s89 km awayKrkaSlovenia93 km170 m³/s85 km awaySutlaCroatia90 km170 m³/s77 km awayBosnaBosnia and Herzegovina282 km140 m³/s161 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q211046) · 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 | Cascadyas, Peakyas — 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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lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit