|
|
|
|
|
Bulgaria: GEOGRAPHY
Location: Bulgaria is located in southeastern Europe, northwest of Turkey, south of Romania, north of Greece, and east of Serbia and Macedonia.
Size: The total area of Bulgaria is 110,910 square kilometers, of which 110,550 square kilometers is land surface.
Land Boundaries: Bulgaria has land borders with the following countries: Greece, 494 kilometers; Macedonia, 148 kilometers; Romania, 608 kilometers; Serbia and Montenegro, 318 kilometers; and Turkey, 240 kilometers.
Length of Coastline: Bulgaria has a coastline of 354 kilometers along the Black Sea.
Maritime Claims: Bulgaria claims a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles, a contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles, and an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles.
Topography: More than two-thirds of Bulgaria’s territory is plains and hills with an elevation of less than 600 meters. The main characteristic of Bulgaria’s topography is alternating bands of high and low terrain extending east to west across the country. From north to south, those bands are the Danubian Plain, which runs along both sides of the border with Romania; the Balkan Mountains; the Thracian Plain; and the Rhodope Mountains. The southern edge of the Danubian Plain slopes upward into the foothills of the Balkans, which are highest in the western part of the country. The Thracian Plain is roughly triangular, beginning near Sofia in the west and broadening as it reaches the Black Sea coast. The Rhodopes include two smaller ranges in southwestern Bulgaria, the Pirin and the Rila. Bulgaria’s highest peak, Mt. Musala (2,975 meters), is in the Rila. Bulgaria’s lowest point is sea level, along the Black Sea coast.
Principal Rivers: Bulgaria’s only navigable river is the Danube, which runs 484 kilometers across the northern border. The Iskŭr River, at 400 kilometers the longest river within Bulgaria, flows northward from the Rila and through Sofia before joining the Danube. Networks of smaller rivers to the east of the Iskŭr also flow from the mountains into the Danube. The other major river, the Maritsa, flows 272 kilometers eastward from its source in the Rila before crossing southward in southeastern Bulgaria to define the border between neighboring Greece and Turkey.
Climate: Considering its relatively small size, Bulgaria has substantial climatic variation because it is located at the meeting point of Mediterranean and continental air masses and because its mountains partition climatic zones. Continental air, which moves easily across the open Danubian Plain in the north, dominates Bulgaria’s winter weather and brings substantial snowfall. In summer Mediterranean air masses are more dominant, bringing hot and dry weather to the Rhodopes and the Thracian Plain. The Black Sea also is a moderating weather influence. Because of the mountain barriers, northern Bulgaria averages 1° C cooler and has nearly 200 millimeters more of average annual precipitation than southern Bulgaria. Bulgaria’s average annual precipitation is 630 millimeters, with the Black Sea Coast, the Thracian Plain, and the Danubian Plain receiving less. In Sofia the average winter temperature is –2° C, and the average summer temperature is 21° C.
Click to Enlarge Image
Natural Resources: Bulgaria has large areas of high-quality arable land and forests. A wide variety of mineral resources, not including petroleum, are present. Copper, gold, iron, lead, and zinc are extracted commercially. Among nonmetallic materials extracted for industrial purposes are dolomite, gypsum, kaolin, marble, quartzite, and refractory clay.
Land Use: Approximately 40 percent of Bulgaria’s land area is rated as arable, and about 2 percent of the total area is devoted to permanent crops. Some 8,000 square kilometers are irrigated.
Environmental Factors: Like other countries in the Soviet sphere, Bulgaria strongly emphasized heavy industry and intensive agriculture but did not mitigate the environmental consequences of such a policy. As a result, in the early 1990s an estimated 60 percent of agricultural land was polluted by fertilizers and pesticides, two-thirds of rivers were polluted, and two-thirds of primary forests had been leveled. Although environmental awareness improved in the post-communist era, the state’s lack of administrative strength and fears of unemployment prevented the curtailment of many dangerous practices. For example, the four reactors of Bulgaria’s only nuclear power station at Kozloduy were declared unsafe in the early 1990s, but the first reactor closure occurred only in 2003.
Because cleanup has been economically problematic in the post-communist era, in the mid-2000s Bulgaria still had grave environmental crises. Among them were air pollution from industrial emissions; the inability to filter effluents into rivers, leading to concentrations of untreated sewage, heavy metals, and detergents; severely depleted natural forest cover; forest damage from air pollution and resulting acid rain; and soil contamination by heavy metals resulting from improper industrial waste disposal. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a rapid increase in motor vehicles using leaded fuel exacerbated urban air pollution. The agency responsible for protection against all forms of environmental pollution is the Ministry of Environment and Water. The prospect of membership in the European Union (EU) is expected to raise Bulgaria’s environmental standards.
Time Zone: Bulgaria’s time zone is two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
Unison.ie,Fine Gael is calling on the government to come clean about whether it plans to restrict immigration from Romania and Bulgaria when the two countries join the ... European Parliament Adopts Report on Appointing Resident Employees ... - 24 Oct 2006 Focus News,Legal Affairs, Mr Giuseppe Gargani regarding the proposal of the EC for a set of regulations for the appointing of resident employees from Bulgaria and Romania ... Bulgaria: We're considering restrictions against Britons - 24 Oct 2006 Politics.co.uk,Bulgaria has reacted angrily to John Reid's decision to restrict the working rights of their citizens when the country joins the EU with Romania in January. ... Bulgaria Will Consider Reciprocal Measures for EU Countries ... - 24 Oct 2006 Focus News,According to him all analyses in Bulgaria show that Britain is not facing a flood of Bulgarian workers after January 2007. Dimitar ... PROPERTY INVESTORS TURN INTEREST AWAY FROM BULGARIA’S CAPITAL - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia Echo,The construction boom Sofia experienced recently is beginning to calm down and property investors are turning their interest to other Bulgarian cities. ... Ambassadors Open European Gays, Lesbians Forum in Bulgaria's ... - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia News Agency,Bulgaria: Foreign ambassadors in Bulgaria will inaugurate the 28th Annual Conference of International Association of Gays and Lesbians for Europe, which will ... Germany Anxious to Spare its Criminals from Bulgaria's Prisons - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia News Agency,Bulgaria: The Prime Minister of Bavaria Edmund Stoiber has turned to EC enlargement commissioner Oli Rehn, asking him to change the criminals' extradition ... AP: Bulgaria Deplores Plans by EU Members to Restrict Work Rights ... - 24 Oct 2006 Focus News,Sofia. Bulgaria on Tuesday deplored plans by some EU members to limit the access of Bulgarian and Romanian workers to their labor markets after the two Balkan ... Bulgaria's Soldiers Abroad Get More Free Calls Home - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia News Agency,Bulgaria: Bulgaria's soldiers who have been at missions abroad for more than two months, will be getting twice as much time for calls to the homeland, Darik ... Bulgaria's Police Uncovers Stolen Cars Shed - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia News Agency,Bulgaria: Sofia's police uncovered a shed for stolen cars and huge quantities of other illegal goods meant for the Sofia market. ... Tourism Fuels Bulgarian Buy-to-Lets Success in Bulgaria - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia News Agency,Bulgaria: Buy-to-lets in Bulgaria are gaining ground as tourism levels reach an all-time high, real estate experts comment. "The ... Bulgaria in 36th Place in Press Freedom Report - 24 Oct 2006 Focus News,Paris. Bulgaria is placed in 36th place in the fifth annual ‘Reporters Without Borders’ Worldwide Press Freedom Index. The report ... Bulgaria's Business Reaches out to Prosecutors in Corruption ... - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia News Agency,Bulgaria: The Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum (BBLF), one of the most influential communities in the country, reiterated calls for pooling the state and ... CUSACK BEGINS SHOOTING MOVIE IN BULGARIA'S PLOVDIV - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia Echo,Plovdiv. War Inc is the newest production of Nu Image, the company that received ownership over Bulgaria’s Boyana Film Studios. ... CORRUPTION INVESTIGATIONS UNDERWAY IN BULGARIA - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia Echo,The Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (CDCOC) was investigating several custom officers, who allegedly took part in corruption schemes. ... Bulgaria housing prices add 5% in Q3 - 24 Oct 2006 Dnevnik.bg,Housing prices increased by 5% in July-September over the previous quarter, said Bulgaria's national statistics authority on Monday. ... Vanguard to trade in Bulgaria, as well - 24 Oct 2006 Ziarul Financiar,Mihaela Baciu, chairman of Vanguard. Vanguard will work with an authorised broker on Bulgaria's capital market. For the time being ... 6-Time Felon Arrested for Pimping Orphans in Bulgaria - 24 Oct 2006 Sofia News Agency,Bulgaria: A man, who had been charged with criminal activities six times and has even spent time behind bars on a murder charge, was arrested in Bulgaria for ... State Institutions Can Protect Witnesses in Bulgarian Rap Singer ... - 24 Oct 2006 Focus News,I am sure that the state institutions in Bulgaria have the capacity to protect the witnesses in the trial again rap singer Vanko 1. This is what Bulgaria’s ... This series of profiles of foreign nations is part of the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. The profiles offer brief, summarized information on a country’s historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security. In addition to being featured in the front matter of published Country Studies, they are now being prepared as stand-alone reference aides for all countries in the series, as well as for a number of additional countries of interest. The profiles offer reasonably current country information independent of the existence of a recently published Country Study and will be updated annually or more frequently as events warrant. |
| what's new | rainforests home | help support the site | madagascar | search | about | contact |
Copyright Rhett Butler 1994-2006 |
