Geography of Austria

This article describes the geography of Austria. Austria is a country in Central Europe, which is located south of the Czech Republic and the south-east of Germany. The land area of Austria is about 83 879 square kilometers. The highest point is the Grossglockner 3798 m.

• 2.1 air temperature
• 2.2 Precipitation

• 3.1 states
• 3.2 Cities
• 3.3 exclaves and enclaves

Physical Geography

Great landscapes

Austria has three basic natural areas, which can be conceived as follows according to generally - geographical aspects:

• Northern Alps, Central Alps and Southern Alps (the Austrian share in this mountain range is quite low )
• After major mountain ranges: the main large groups are the high mountains on the main Alpine ridge, especially Tyrolean Central Alps, Hohe Tauern and the Low Tauern, as well as the Northern and Southern Limestone Alps, the greywacke zone and several mountain range, in particular the flysch zone ( Bregenz Forest, Vienna Woods ) and the Styrian Foothills

Orography

Of the total area of Austria ( according to the latest investigations 83878.99 km ²) are only 32% deeper than 500 m, but 40% higher than 1000 m.

• Lowest point: Hedwighof (municipality Apetlon - Burgenland), 114 m above sea level. A.
• Highest point: Grossglockner ( Carinthia / East Tyrol) 3798 m above sea level. A.

Mountains

The 35 highest mountains in Austria are:

( All heights refer to the level used in Austria Trieste 1875 - meters above the Adriatic )

Wild tip

GROßVENEDIGER

Similaun

Large Wiesbachhorn

• Rhine
• Elbe
• Danube

The largest part of Austria, 80,566 km ², is drained by the Danube to the Black Sea, only small areas on the Rhine ( 2366 km ²) or same (918 km ²) to the North Sea.

Large tributaries of the Danube are ( from east to west ):

• The Drau, Carinthia and East Tyrol the east dehydrated. It flows through Slovenia and Croatia empties into the Danube. The catchment area of the river Drava characterizes the Southern Alps of Austria, ie the south of the Alps lying areas that no longer belong to the Atlantean sphere of influence, but the Illyrian province of air are attributed to The Gurk in Carinthia
• The Drava takes in Croatia and the Mur, which drains the Styria and Salzburg Lungau, to the Mur, the Murz flows from the southern Lower Austria - the two rivers form in the upper reaches the river Mur - Murz - furrow Mur then turns southward.

The Danube tributaries of the Pannonian Alps Ostrands and granite and gneiss highlands are:

• The Raab of Eastern Styria, Hungary to the Danube
• The Leitha drains the southern part of Lower Austria and northern Burgenland via Hungary.
• The Thaya captures the northeastern Lower Austria ( Waldviertel, wine district ), only eastward and is border to the Czech Republic, then south as the border with Slovakia.
• From the forest district also comes der Kamp.

The following rivers are the major rivers northern Alps to the northern foothills of the Alps, which are characterized by the Atlantic northern barrier layers:

• The Enns drained the Salzburg Ennspongau, the northern edge of Styria, to the southeast of Upper Austria, in the upper reaches it forms the eastern edge of the Inn -Salzach - Enns - furrow and then pierces the limestone Alps
• The Traun, the flow of the Salzkammergut
• The Inn: He comes from Switzerland, crosses Tyrol, and then flows into Bavaria - its lower course is the border river. He is the most water tributary of the Danube on Austrian territory. The Salzach River drains the majority of Salzburg, and it flows like the Enns first eastwards and then turns abruptly to the north.
• The Lech River originates in Austria, remains here but a small mountain river.

The Rhine River, which drains the greater part of Vorarlberg, comes from Switzerland here, forms the border, and leaving Austria in Lake Constance. It flows into the North Sea. The catchment area of the Rhine is one major part of Vorarlberg

The Lainsitz ( Lužnice ) and the chain Bach ( web Mühlbach, Vetsi Vltavice ) are not due to their size matters, but as a drain only major Austrian streams over the Czech Republic to the Elbe River and thus to the North Sea. The catchment area includes the same room Gmünd in the Waldviertel, and small areas on the northern edge of the Mühlviertel.

Lakes

The largest lake is Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland, which is around 77% of its total area of ​​315 km ² in Austria, followed by the Attersee 46 km ² and 24 km ², with the Traunsee in Upper Austria. Also the large Lake Constance with its 536 km ² in the border with Germany and Switzerland is to a small extent on Austrian territory. However, the state borders within the Lake Constance are not accurately determined.

For the summer tourism in Austria, the lakes have next to the mountains of the greatest importance, in particular the Carinthian lakes and those of the Salzkammergut. The best known are the Wörthersee, Lake Millstatt, Ossiach and the Weissensee. Other famous lakes are the Mondsee and Wolfgangsee on the border of Salzburg and Upper Austria. As a large alpine lakes and the Zeller See in the Salzburg are to be mentioned and the Achensee in Tyrol.

See also: List of lakes in Austria

Lake Constance

Wörthersee

Climate

The climate in Austria can be assigned according to the descriptive classification of the warm and humid temperate zone. In the west and north of Austria dominates oceanic -influenced, often marked by humid westerly winds climate. In the east, however, outweighs Pannonian - more continental, low rainfall climate with hot summers and cold winters. Especially in the Southern Alps of influence more precipitation pressure areas of the Mediterranean is palpable.

Indeed, the regional climate of Austria's alpine topography is greatly impressed. There are often within short distances and low Seehöhenunterschiede considerable climatic differences. With increasing altitude are initially boreal and tundra, polar climate to be found even in the peak areas. Not only the main Alpine ridge acts as a climatic divide. The sun-drenched Föhntäler (eg Inn Valley ) are fog -prone basins (eg Klagenfurt basin ), rainy mountain edges (eg Bregenzerwald ) are inner-Alpine dry valleys (eg Ötztal Alps ) over.

Air temperature

The total range of mean annual air temperature ranges in Austria of more than 11 ° C in the inner districts of Vienna to below -9 ° C on the summit of the Grossglockner. In the densely populated lowlands, it lies mostly between 8 ° and 10 ° C. The area average is 6.0 ° C. The zero degree isotherm is the year at an altitude of about 2200 m. In closed basins, valleys and hollows under 800 to 1200 m above sea level occur in the winter months often temperature increases with altitude on ( temperature inversion ).

While in most of Austria's January and July are the average of the coldest and warmest month of the year, this applies to the February and August in the high mountains. The long-term January average air temperature is in the flat landscapes of the region between 0 ° and -2 ° C and -4 ° to -6 ° C. falls in around 1000 m above sea level, the lowest value in the range of the highest peaks is approximately -15 ° C. in July, the long-term average values ​​in the east vary between 18 ° and 20 ° C and at 1000 m between 13 ° and 15 ° C. At the Grossglockner the freezing level is not exceeded even in the height of summer in the middle.

Precipitation

In the frequent westerly to north-west positions of the Bregenz Forest and the entire Northern Limestone Alps in Luv lie. The same applies to the southern border of Austria, who receive intensive rainfall accumulation at inflow from the Mediterranean. Together with the central alpine Hohe Tauern reach the measured annual precipitation in these regions in the long-term average of 2000 mm, isolated on the 3000 mm. In contrast, the eastern forest district, the wine district, the Vienna Basin and the northern Burgenland receive less than 600 mm of rainfall in a year. As niederschlagsärmster place Retz in Austria can be called with just under 450 mm.

The area average of Austria is about 1100 mm for the year. In the summer months ( April to September) accounts for slightly more than 60 % of the annual total, the winter months ( October to March) correspondingly slightly less than 40%. This rainfall distribution proves in regard to the development of vegetation as very favorable. While the vast majority of the country konvektionsbedingt ( showers and thunderstorms ) drops the wettest month on the June or July, the Carinthian Lesachtal is the only exception: with a primary maximum rainfall in October, it is attributable to the Mediterranean precipitation climate.

Of snowfall is mainly relative depending on the altitude and the position of the area to the main flow directions and varies considerably. While in the Austrian area average about 3.3 m fall of fresh snow in an average year, there are at Krems only 0.3 m, on the other hand Sonnblick 22 m.

Political Geography

States

The nine Austrian provinces are divided into 99 districts, 15 of which are statutory cities. The districts in turn are divided into municipalities.

See also:

• Administrative divisions of Austria
• Geography of Carinthia

Cities

By far the largest settlement area in Austria is the Vienna metropolitan region with a population of 2,067,652 (as of 1 January 2005). Thus, a quarter of the country's population is concentrated in the capital region. In Austria, 203 municipalities have municipal rights. A major problem, especially in economically depressed areas, is the migration ( rural exodus ) of the rural population in the urban areas.

For a list of all cities, and the largest cities and metropolitan areas, see: List of cities in Austria

Exclaves and enclaves

Although the Kleinwalsertal is on Austrian territory and is one of Vorarlberg, but according to the topography of a so-called functional exclave of Austria and one of Germany's enclave, accessible only by federal German territory or Bavarian roads there. Another functional exclave of the municipality is young wood in Tyrol, which is accessible only by Bavarian streets or on the 1636 m high Sorgschrofen from Austria.

A formerly functional enclave of Austria was the Swiss Samnaun, which has long been to reach by road only about Tyrol. This geographical connectedness once led to the fact that the inhabitants of their native language Romansh in the 19th century tasks in favor of the neighboring Tyrol similar Bavarian dialect. Meanwhile, there has been a road to Montague, which runs exclusively on Swiss territory, but there is a duty free zone, once built on. A similar status was until 1980 the Tyrolean town Spiss the border to Switzerland, which has been available for a long time only about Samnaun. The place was because of its location, only a small economic opportunity and many of its inhabitants migrated in search of a job.

Boundaries, distances, extreme points

Lengths of the state borders a total of 2,562 kma ( the national administrative units counterclockwise):

• 784 km - Germany: the state of Bavaria
• 430 km - Italy: regions of Trentino -Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli -Venezia Giulia
• 366 km - Hungary: Vas, Győr -Moson -Sopron
• 362 km - Czech Republic: South Moravian Region ( " Moravia " ), South Bohemia, ( " Bohemia " )
• 330 km - Slovenia: Regijb Carniola ( " Upper Carniola " ), Savinjska, Koroško ( " Unterkärnten " ), Podravska Pomurska
• 164 km - Switzerland: Cantons of Graubünden, St. Gallen
• 91 km - Slovakia: Bratislavský kraj ( " Pressburg ") Trnavský kraj ( " Trnava " )
• 35 km - Liechtenstein

Distances ( distance)

• Vienna - Bregenz 501 km
• Vienna - Innsbruck 385 km
• Vienna - Salzburg 251 km
• Vienna - Linz 155 km
• Vienna - Graz 145 km
• Vienna - Bratislava ( SK) 56.8 km
• Salzburg - Munich ( D) 116 km
• Vienna - Berlin ( D) 524 km
• Vienna - Budapest ( H) 216 km
• Bregenz - Paris ( F) 569 km
• Villach - Trieste ( Mediterranean) (I) 107 km
• Graz - Maribor ( SLO) 60.1 km

Austria extends in an east-west direction over a maximum of 577 km, from north to south 296 km. The outermost boundary points in Austria are:

• Northernmost point: height ~ 500 m above sea. A. 49 ° 1 ' 15 " N, 15 ° 1' 15" O49.02070315.020773500, near the former barracks Peršlák - town: red valley (about 1 km to the southeast )
• Southernmost point: height ~ 2030 m 46 ° 22 ' 20 " N, 14 ° 33' 49 " O46.37213214.5634942030 near the Savinjske saddle between Mrzla gora, Vellacher Baba / Fraunberg and Ceska koca, south of Seebergsattel (nature reserve Vellacher Kotschna ) - town: iron Kappel (13 km north)
• Easternmost point: the border with Slovakia and Hungary 133 m 48 ° 0 ' 24 " N, 17 ° 9' 39" O48.00669117.160749133 - town: German Year village (4 miles west)
• Westernmost point: the border with Liechtenstein and Switzerland, the Rhine ~ 440 m 47 ° 16 ' 14 " N, 9 ° 31' 51" O47.2705819.530768440 - town: Bangs at Nofels (1 km east) or Ruthi (1 km north ) with border crossing 200 meters north; Feldkirch (6 km south-east )

Middle:

• As " geographical center " is generally Bad Aussee, Styria, called the stand has a center stone in the spa town (47 ° 41 '48 " N, 13 ° 20' 44" O47.69652777777813.345694444444 ) - exact reference account is unknown
• Farthest removed from a boundary point: near Gstatterboden, in Gesäuse, Styria, about 100 km from the state border (47 ° 35 '30 " N, 14 ° 38 ' 0" O47.59166666666714.633333333333 )