Geography of the Czech Republic

Geography of Czech Republic

Continent	Europe
Region	Central Europe
Area	Ranked 118th[1]
• Total	78,865 km2 (30,450 sq mi)
• Land	97.95%
• Water	2.05%
Coastline	0 km (0 mi)
Borders	2,143 km [2] Germany – 704 km Poland – 796 km Austria – 402 km Slovakia – 241 km
Highest point	Sněžka, 1603.3 m
Lowest point	Hřensko, 115 m
Longest river	Moldau, 433 km
Largest lake	Black Lake, 18.4 ha
Climate	temperate
Terrain	hills and lowlands surrounded by low mountains
Natural resources	kaolin, lithium, graphite, black coal, brown coal, uranium, timber

The Czech Republic is a land-locked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the north. It consists mostly of low hills and plateaus surrounded along the borders by low mountains. Two areas of lowlands follow the Elbe river and the Morava river. About a third of the area of the Czech Republic is covered by forests.

The Czech Republic also possesses Moldauhafen, a 30,000 m² enclave in the middle of Hamburg docks in Germany, which was awarded to Czechoslovakia by Article 363 of the Treaty of Versailles to allow the landlocked country a place where goods transported down river could be transferred to seagoing ships. This territory reverts to Germany in 2028.

Physical geography[]

Climate[]

Köppen climate classification of the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic's climate is temperate, transitional between an oceanic climate and a continental climate. The summers are rather cool and dry, with average temperatures in most areas around 20 °C, the winters are fairly mild and wet with temperatures averaging around 0 °C in most areas. The relative humidity moves between 60 and 80 %.

Geology[]

Most of the area of the Czech Republic belongs to the geographically stable Czech Massif. Only an area of the Western Carpathians in the east of the country is younger, lifted during the Tertiary. Igneous rocks make up the base of the Czech Massif. Sedimentary rocks are mostly found in the north-eastern part of Bohemia with significant areas of sandstone. Among the metamorphic rocks, the most commonly found is Gneiss.

Mountains[]

The most notable mountain ranges in the Czech Republic are all found along the borders of the country. In Bohemia it is the Bohemian Forest and Ore Mountains, both bordering Germany. Then the long mountain range of Sudeten with Sněžka (1603) – the highest peak of the Czech Republic. The last major mountain range is the Beskid Mountains in the east, which then continue further east into Poland and Slovakia.

Rivers[]

Drainage areas of the Elbe River (Labe) and Morava River

There are four major rivers in the Czech Republic. Elbe (Labe in Czech) flows from Krkonoše Mountains in the north east of Bohemia to the west and then flows through northern Germany all the way to the North Sea. Morava River drains most of Moravia and flows to the south into Danube and ultimately to the Black Sea. Odra River starts in the Moravian Silesia and flows north through Poland into the Baltic Sea. The fourth major river is Moldau (Vltava in Czech), which is the longest river of the Czech Republic and drains the southern part of Bohemia before flowing into Elbe in Mělník.

Bodies of water[]

Natural occurring bodies of water are rather scarce, most of the significant bodies of water are man-made ponds and reservoirs. The largest pond is the Rožmberk Pond, which is one of the ponds in the system of fish ponds built in the 16th century around Třeboň. The largest reservoir by area covered is the Lipno Reservoir (4870 ha), built in the 1950s and the largest reservoir by cubic capacity is Orlík Reservoir (716,000,000 m³), built around the same time.

Human geography[]

Population geography[]

Population density in the Czech Republic

Natural resources: Metals are in blue: Fe — iron ore, PY — pyrite, PM – polymetal ores (Cu, Zn, Pb, etc.), U — uranium. Fossil fuels are in red: C — coal, L — lignite, O – oil. Non-metallic minerals are in green: G — graphite, KA — kaolinite.

The population of the Czech Republic is estimated to be around 10.6 million. The highest population density is in the larger metropolitan area of Ostrava and of course in the area around the capital of Prague. The lowest population density is in the Czech-German and Czech-Austrian borderlands, mostly as a lasting result of the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after the World War II.

Political geography[]

The Czech Republic is divided into thirteen regions (kraje in Czech) and one capital city with regional status. The older administrative units of seventy-six districts (okresy in Czech) are still recognized and remain the seats of various branches of state administration. Historically, the Czech Republic can be split into three regions: Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the east and Czech Silesia in the north east.

South Bohemian Region	Central Bohemian Region	Plzeň Region
Karlovy Vary Region	Ústí nad Labem Region	Liberec Region
Hradec Králové Region	Pardubice Region	Vysočina Region
Moravian-Silesian Region	Olomouc Region	Zlín Region
South Moravian Region	Prague

Industry and agriculture[]

Areas affected the most by heavy industry are the Sokolov Basin and the Most Basin in the north-west of the Czech Republic. The extensive deposits of brown coal in those areas are mostly used for electricity production. It is estimated, that almost 40% of all electric power produced in the Czech Republic comes from burning brown coal mined in these areas. Plant agriculture is focused around the lowlands surrounding the Elbe River and the Morava River. Around a third of the country is covered by forests and approximately 40% of land is arable. The area of irrigated land is estimated to spread across 385 km2 and freshwater withdrawal per capita is around 164 m³ every year.

Important cities[]

v t Largest municipalities in the Czech Republic Czech Statistical Office[3]
	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.
Prague Brno	1	Prague	Prague	1,313,508	11	Zlín	Zlín	75,112	Ostrava Plzeň
	2	Brno	South Moravian	377,440	12	Havířov	Moravian-Silesian	75,049
	3	Ostrava	Moravian-Silesian	294,200	13	Kladno	Central Bohemian	68,552
	4	Plzeň	Plzeň	169,033	14	Most	Ústí nad Labem	67,089
	5	Liberec	Liberec	102,562	15	Opava	Moravian-Silesian	57,772
	6	Olomouc	Olomouc	100,378	16	Frýdek-Místek	Moravian-Silesian	56,945
	7	Ústí nad Labem	Ústí nad Labem	93,409	17	Karviná	Moravian-Silesian	55,985
	8	České Budějovice	South Bohemian	93,285	18	Jihlava	Vysočina	50,521
	9	Hradec Králové	Hradec Králové	92,808	19	Teplice	Ústí nad Labem	50,079
	10	Pardubice	Pardubice	89,693	20	Děčín	Ústí nad Labem	49,833

See also[]

• Protected areas of the Czech Republic
• Rivers of the Czech Republic
• List of highest mountains of the Czech Republic

References[]

 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/.