Consequences of the River Bank Erosion in the Southern Part of the Pannonian Basin: Case Study – Serbia and the Republic of Srpska

Abstract

Bank erosion is one of the dominant geomorphological processes in the southern part of the Pannonian Basin. The consequences of bank erosion on the territory of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska were analysed including landscape degradation (lateral migration), socio-economic (land loss, land use changes, economical losses) and geopolitical consequences. The analysis covered the Danube River and the Drina River as the international river border, the Bosna River as a boundary watercourse along the administrative border and the Kolubara River with dominantly antropogenic impacts on the rate of bank erosion . The total amount of lateral migration of the Kolubara riverbed for the period 19252010 is 155 m and the Bosna riverbed for the period 19582012 is 352.2 m. Lateral migration has caused serious problems through loss of arable land (approximately 40 ha) and land use changes in both basins, but also economic loss due to the reduction of agricultural production. For the protection of the Bosna River banks it is necessary to invest 7.91 million Euros, while in the case of the Kolubara River for their recovery 2.54 million Euros were needed. The geopolitical consequences due to the bank erosion acting and lateral migration of the river course were analysed on three paradigmatic examples: the Danube River (the border between Serbia and Croatia), Drina River (the border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Bosna River (the border between the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of B&H). The results of this investigation are applicable in the field of water and soil resources management, hydrotechnical works, geopolitical studies, as well as in different aspects of the environmental protection.