Furt Schwallenbach
- Lowest
- 201 cm
- Point
- Furt Schwallenbach
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Navigation
Danube navigation: critical points
Shallow sections of the lower Danube, from upstream to downstream, with the officially published depths for the current gauge level and the date of the latest survey.
In Austria: shallow water today at 13 shoals, below 250 cm.
31 points · updated 6 November 2026
Sectors, from Furt Schwallenbach to Furt Hainburg
- shallow (below 250 cm)
By sector
shallow
Furt Hofarnsdorf
- Lowest
- 201 cm
- Point
- Furt Hofarnsdorf
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Weißenkirchen
- Lowest
- 201 cm
- Point
- Furt Weißenkirchen
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Haufenrand Dürnstein
- Lowest
- 238 cm
- Point
- Haufenrand Dürnstein
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Lobau
- Lowest
- 188 cm
- Point
- Furt Lobau
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Schwechatmündung
- Lowest
- 198 cm
- Point
- Furt Schwechatmündung
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Buchenau
- Lowest
- 198 cm
- Point
- Furt Buchenau
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Fischamündung
- Lowest
- 188 cm
- Point
- Furt Fischamündung
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Regelsbrunn
- Lowest
- 118 cm
- Point
- Furt Regelsbrunn
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Rote Werd
- Lowest
- 158 cm
- Point
- Furt Rote Werd
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Petronell-Witzelsdorf
- Lowest
- 188 cm
- Point
- Furt Petronell-Witzelsdorf
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Haufenrand Schwalbeninsel
- Lowest
- 158 cm
- Point
- Haufenrand Schwalbeninsel
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
Furt Hainburg
- Lowest
- 208 cm
- Point
- Furt Hainburg
- Survey
- 6 November 2026
Officially published depth.
How to read the figures on the navigation page
The page shows, sector by sector, how deep the water is in the Danube fairway today. The fairway is the part of the river that vessels use. The figures come from the latest surveys and from the current gauge level; the notes below are for anyone who does not work in hydrology.
- LDC — Low reference level of the Danube Commission
- LDC is the low-water reference the Danube Commission sets for each gauge: the level the water reaches or exceeds on 94 of 100 ice-free days over a 30-year period. It is not today's level and not a limit: the river can fall below it. As the level approaches LDC, the fairway narrows and loaded barges have to carry less.
- HDC — High reference level of the Danube Commission
- HDC is the high-water reference of the Danube Commission, exceeded on only 1 of 100 ice-free days in the same 30-year period. It is not a flood or defence level: above it, navigation faces restrictions on speed, draught and sometimes on operating hours.
- ENR — Navigable regulation low water (Romanian reference)
- ENR is the Romanian counterpart of LDC on the lower Danube: the level reached or exceeded on 94 of 100 days, used as the reference for fairway depth. When you hear “depth at ENR”, the figure describes the fairway at that reference level, not at today’s gauge.
What a critical point is
A critical point is a place in the fairway where the water can become too shallow for a loaded vessel: a sandbank, a stretch that is dredged, a bridge or a lock. The waterway authority surveys it regularly and publishes the lowest depth found, together with the gauge level on the day of the survey.
The page takes that depth and adjusts it by the change in level since the survey. That is why today's figure can be lower or higher than the one in the notice. Where the authority publishes today's depth directly, the page takes that value as it is. At bridges and locks, the figure that matters may be clear height or width, not depth.
Not every point has a depth for today. If the gauge has no recent reading, the depth cannot be estimated, and the page leaves the cell empty rather than inventing a number.
Depth by sector
Sectors are not administrative divisions: they are groups of critical points read together, usually those tied to the same gauge. For each sector the card shows the lowest depth today among its points, the point that gives it, and the date of the survey. Below the shallow-water threshold shown in the legend the sector is marked “shallow”; above it, “good”.
Today's depth is either estimated from the survey and the gauge level, or published directly by the authority; it is not a measurement taken today. The survey may be from last week or last year, and the gauge correction accounts for how much the water has risen or fallen since.
A negative depth means the surveyed shoal is above today’s water. The page does not print a minus sign: it shows zero centimetres and “shoal above water”, and marks the sector as not navigable at the current level. A sector with no gauge reading today gets no depth: a gap is better than a misleading number.
How to read the table
The table below the cards lists every critical point in the selected country. The Point column gives the name, and RKM is the river kilometre: on the Danube it is counted upstream from the mouth into the Black Sea, on tributaries from their own mouth. The higher the number, the further upstream the point.
The type says what kind of place it is: a shoal, a dredging area, a bridge or a lock / dam. The lowest depth is today’s, in centimetres; LDC, HDC and ENR are reference levels of the gauge, not depths measured under a vessel. The survey date is the day the fairway was measured; if it is more than a few months old, the note “old survey” appears and the figure is only indicative.
You can change the order by clicking the RKM, Depth or Survey column heading. By default the most recent survey comes first. A row without a depth does not mean the passage is clear: it means we have no reliable figure.
About the data. This page is for information and does not replace the official notices. Depths change with the water level, and an old survey may no longer describe today's fairway. Check the waterway authority's notices before you sail. Sources and attributions are on the About page. About
All critical points · Austria
| Point | RKM | Type | Minimum depth (cm) | Survey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stadionbrücke (Donaukanal)Survey: 6 November 2026 | 10 | Bridge | ||
| Ostbahnbrücke (Donaukanal)Survey: 6 November 2026 | 12 | Bridge | ||
| Furt HainburgSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,885 | Shallow | 208 cm | |
| Haufenrand SchwalbeninselSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,890 | Shallow | 158 cm | |
| Furt Petronell-WitzelsdorfSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,893 | Shallow | 188 cm | |
| Furt Rote WerdSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,897 | Shallow | 158 cm | |
| Furt RegelsbrunnSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,899 | Shallow | 118 cm | |
| Furt FischamündungSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,906 | Shallow | 188 cm | |
| Furt BuchenauSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,912 | Shallow | 198 cm | |
| Furt SchwechatmündungSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,914 | Shallow | 198 cm | |
| Furt LobauSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,917 | Shallow | 188 cm | |
| Ecluza Freudenau | 1,921 | Lock / dam | ||
| Praterbrücke (Wien)Survey: 6 November 2026 | 1,926 | Bridge | ||
| Reichsbrücke (Wien)Survey: 6 November 2026 | 1,929 | Bridge | ||
| U6-Brücke WienSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,931 | Bridge | ||
| Ecluza Greifenstein | 1,949 | Lock / dam | ||
| Straßen- und Eisenbahnbrücke TullnSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 1,963 | Bridge | ||
| Ecluza Altenwörth | 1,981 | Lock / dam | ||
| Eisenbahnbrücke KremsSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 2,002 | Bridge | ||
| Straßenbrücke Stein-MauternSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 2,004 | Bridge | ||
| Haufenrand DürnsteinSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 2,010 | Shallow | 238 cm | |
| Furt WeißenkirchenSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 2,015 | Shallow | 201 cm | |
| Furt HofarnsdorfSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 2,019 | Shallow | 201 cm | |
| Furt SchwallenbachSurvey: 6 November 2026 | 2,023 | Shallow | 201 cm | |
| Ecluza Melk | 2,038 | Lock / dam | ||
| Ecluza Persenbeug/Ybbs | 2,060 | Lock / dam | ||
| Ecluza Wallsee | 2,096 | Lock / dam | ||
| Ecluza Abwinden/Asten | 2,120 | Lock / dam | ||
| Nibelungenbrücke (Linz)Survey: 6 November 2026 | 2,135 | Bridge | ||
| Ecluza Ottensheim | 2,147 | Lock / dam | ||
| Ecluza Aschach | 2,163 | Lock / dam |
Depths at the gauge level of the latest update (lower Danube), from the latest survey. A negative value means the section is not navigable at that level. Always check the official notices before sailing. JSON (API)