The Bolečica (Serbian Cyrillic: Болечица) is a short river in north-central Serbia, a 12 km-long right tributary to the Danube. During its entire flow it runs through the suburban section of Belgrade and despite being short it flows through the three Belgrade's municipalities, next to the half dozen of suburbs of Belgrade (giving its name to one of them) with a total population of 35,000 and is a route to important roads. Course Bolečica originates in the northern, low Šumadija region, between two "Belgrade mountains", Avala and Kosmaj, on the slopes of the Begaljica Hill, at an altitude of 105 meters. Originally, it flows to the north along the eastern slopes of the Avala, crossing between the municipalities of Grocka and Voždovac, next to the villages of Vrčin and Zuce, where it receives the Vranovac creek from the right and enters the valley of Bubanj Potok where it marks the eastern border of the woods of Stepin Lug, turns to the north-east through the southernmost tip of the municipality of Zvezdara (for some 300 meters) and receives two more creeks from the left, Bubanj Potok and Zavojnička reka. Bolečica continues through the southern section of Leštane, where it receives the creek of Kaluđerički potok from the left and forms the border between the four suburbs area: Leštane, Boleč, Ritopek and Vinča (where it receives the creek of Makački potok from the left), where it empties into the Danube by a small estuary at an altitude of 68 meters, just east of Belo Brdo, the archeological find of the Vinča culture. Characteristics The majority of the Bolečica's flow has been channeled, mostly in the Bubanj Potok-Leštane section. For that purpose, the river bed has been concreted and moved to the west, so the river is now further away from Boleč, which was named after the river. It enabled for a usually minor water flow to conduct abundantly larger quantities of water during heavy rains and floods. However, the final 3 kilometers of the river, through Vinča, has not been channeled, so with the growth of the Danube's level, the water overflows the estuary preventing the waters drained by Bolečica to flow into the Danube (inverse flow). As a result, during high levels, Bolečica overspills itself, sometimes causing the traffic breach on a major roads that cross over the river, like Kružni put and Smederevski put. Due to the much larger impact