Vlasina (river)

The Vlasina (Serbian Cyrillic: Власина) is a river in southeastern Serbia, a 70 km long

The Vlasina flows out from the Vlasina Lake at an altitude of 1,213 m. Lake used to be a large, muddy peat bog, but in 1947 1951 the Vlasina was dammed by the long, earth dam and the bog was turned into an artificial lake. The river flows to the north, between the mountains of Čemernik on the west, and Gramada on the east. It flows through Crna Trava, regional and municipal center, and the villages of Brod, Krstićevo and Jabukovik, where it reaches the Lužnica mountain and receives the Gradska from the right. The river bends to the west, along the southern slopes of Lužnica, and receives from the right the Tegošnica (at Donje Gare village) and the Lužnica (at Svođe). As the Vlasina continues on the southernmost slopes of the Suva Planina and Babička Gora mountains, it reaches the town of Vlasotince and western parts of the low Leskovac Field, part of the composite valley of the Južna Morava. After the villages of Batulovce and Stajkovce, the Vlasina empties into the South Morava, east of the Leskovac's eastern suburb of Mrštane. The longest tributaries are Tegošnica , Lužnica , Pusta Reka , Gradska Reka , Bistrica and Rastovnica For the purpose of hydroelectricity production, some of the Vlasina's tributaries were rerouted through canals into the Vlasina Lake, thus making them part of the Vrla watershed. Those tributaries are Mlađenica, Čemernica and all the right tributaries to the Strvna river. This way, an artificial bifurcation and stream capture were formed. By the 2020s, plans were made to build 55 mini hydros in the watershed of Vlasina. After the negative backlash which followed construction of mini hydros in other parts of Serbia, and action of the local environmentalists, the municipality of Vlasotince banned such facilities on its territory in March 2021.

Usually a calm river, Vlasina is infamous for catastrophic, torrential flooding, which cause major damages. The entire watershed of the river is prone to the erosion. Especially hit are the sections between Crna Trava and Svođe, and between Svođe and Babušnica. The town of Vlasotince was flooded in 1948. On 26 June 1988, after a period of heavy rains, Vlasina valley was a site of catastrophic floods. Extreme downpours and heavy storms affected river's watershed area in the municipalities of Vlasotince, Crna Trava, Babušnica, Pirot and Leskovac. Upper and central watershed sections received with an absolute peak in Rakov Dol, with This was absolute daily maximum in the entire Serbia. Instead of an average discharge of , the Vlasina swelled 145 times, to Tidal wave was tall and, to make things worst, smashed the town during the night. Both the discharge and the height of the wave were never recorded previously.