Modelling hydraulic behaviour of Buna River

Abstract

River Buna is one of the largest rivers in our country, which flow into the Adriatic Sea with a total length of around 44 km. Buna River 1.5 km after flowing out of Shkodra Lake joins Drini River creating a very complex water system. Buna River is considered a plain river flowing in a plain territory, but it collects the waters from a mountainous watershed. It is the only discharge of Shkodra Lake. Through its river bed the waters of Shkodra Lake, Kiri and Drini are discharged into Adriatic Sea. The main altitude of its catchment’s area is 909m above the sea level. The water regime of Buna River after flowing out of Shkodra Lake is not only influenced from the lake but also from the Drini river flow, the biggest River in Albanian territory with a large catchment area of 14173 km2. To study the hydraulic behaviour of Buna River, a hydraulic model using HEC-RAS software is set- up based on the digital terrain model in WGS-84 coordinate system developed from the topographic survey made from both countries Albania and Montenegro in their national coordinate systems. The hydraulic regime of Buna River it is analysed by using the mathematical model built in HEC-RAS software. Different scenarios are taken into consideration based on different inflow hydrographs to evaluate the effect on water level variation along Buna river from the outflow from Lake Shkodra to the Adriatic sea.