Albania's Vjosa river: The last wild river In Europe

All rivers used to be free of human-made impediments, of course, but few are now, especially in Europe. Except, one. Albania's Vjosa river is a sight to behold, its upper reaches tumble through stunning gorges and canyons and under ancient stone bridges nestled between snow-capped peaks. Lower down, it barrels across a huge gravel riverbed up to 2 kilometres wide. The channel continually splits and rejoins to create ribbons of blue-green water, oxbow lakes and temporary islands on which rare birds nest.
Join New Scientist's reporter, Graham Lawton as he explains why a free-flowing river is so important.
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[@matta-g8490]

Never even considered how a dam or weir could segregate wild life and impede sediment flow like that.

[@Jeremyramone]

Thank you very much for sharing this information

[@blackcat.19]

Albanian has a natural river that no other European country does. That’s awesome!!

[@Ptolemy336VV]

That is incorrect. The Aoos in Greek, Albanian Vjosa, is a river that starts from the Aoos lake, extending into and through the Valia calda, Aoos gorge, and flowing into the Konitsa river valley before it goes on into Albania. And Greece has not only this river that has this level of untouched. If you go to google earth, and go to the Aoos river, you see another highly untouched Greek river that merges with the Aoos river, before it goes on into Albania as the Vjosa. And it's called the Sarantaporos river. Spend 5 minutes of your time to fly over the Aoos and then over the Sarantaporos Then the Kallaritikos river in the valley outflowing Tzoumerka, or the Acheloos river valley are 2 more extremely untouched rivers and river basins that are literally equally untouched like the Aoos. And I know all these rivers and passed by all these regions to know what I speak off. It's all a big nomans land. And these 4 examples are not the only examples. there are more.

[@enricorickrick7856]

@@Ptolemy336VVwhy is always a greek who will always be against Albanian beauty, greek is beaty too,we dont hate but we are glad to have such a beauty in the region.You should be happy too that ur neighbour Albania is a fascinate place .Dont hate

[@enricorickrick7856]

@@Ptolemy336VVand is called Vjosa not aoos thos weird name

[@Ptolemy336VV]

@@enricorickrick7856 im not Greek. Im Dutch. And Im not against Albania at all. I am highlighting my love for Greece, my favorite country on earth. Dont take it as negative. but I have traveled Greece 50+ times(aside of all of pretty much all of Europe), to volcanic islands, virgin forests, deserts, 80% mountains, untouched rivers, caves, endless diversity. Greeces geography on the map is incredinly complex. And Greece lies on 4 tectonic earth plates coming together inside Greece. The European plate, the African plate, the Asian plate and a 4th plate crushed in between. This is why Greece has so much stupendous diversity vastly outstripping the size of its country. Even Crete alone is called: The small continent. Because Crete has 5 mountain ranges, 1050km coastline(the whole of Albania has just 450km), the only natural palm forests in Europe, 5000 caves, the longest gorge in Europe(Samaria) and so on and so on. So. And that is just Crete. 1 of 6000 islands. And that is aside the incredibly diverse mainland. So. just because I am factual, doesnt mean I hate Albania. I dont hate anything in life. I just stand for what I love. Also. I rather have Albania as a country bordering Greece than plenty other nations. Albania is beautiful. And I wish it to prosper more. So. Im the opposite of hate. I see plenty good things about Albania and I love Greece. Thats all

[@Ptolemy336VV]

@@enricorickrick7856 its called Aoos river in Greece. So. You caj state whatever you want but its Aoos in Greece (the SOURCE) originating from the Aoos lake, streaming into the Aoos gorge towards Konitsa and then through the Konitsa valley onwards

[@noneofyourbeeswax01]

@1:26 "...and here we see the mother JCB in the shallows, gathering her nesting materials.."

[@NewScientist]

Lear more about the Vjosa river: www.newscientist.com/article/mg25834402-700-inside-the-fight-for-europes-first-wild-river-national-park/

[@maxrush206]

ya just keep importing coal power from Macedonia, Greece, and Kosovo. Now they're also converting the vlore plant to use natural gas. Also limiting solar and wind potential by not have hydro storage for evening demand

[@boomtube8086]

what a fuck is this map in video in second 00:56 🫵🏻🥵😡😡😡😡😡😡

[@Ptolemy336VV]

To me it's an entirely understandable map. It's a Greek map of Greece and Albania. The Aoos river which starts in Greece in the Aoos lake, flows through the Valia Calda, then Aoos gorge, into the Konitsa valley, then merges with another extremely untouched Greek river called Sarantaporous (you can see the name on the map also in Greek) and then continuous across the border into Albania as "Vjosa" river. Also it's the Voidomatis river in Greece which is classified as the cleanest river in Europe or one of the top cleanest rivers in Europe, also flows into the Aoos river + Sarantaporous river. So these 3 rivers merge and then continue into Albania. Also the Voidomatis river flows through 1 of the 3 deepest gorges in the world. The Vikos gorge. On the map you can see the black striped line. Below the black striped line is Greece. You also see the word Konitsa when you look well, you see the 3 rivers in Greece merging into 1. If you do a google earth exploration for 5 minutes aside of the rest of the Vjosa river, you can investigate the Aoos river, Sarantaporous river, Voidomatis river to get more context and appreciation.