Blaž Komac

Social Memory and Geographical Memory of Natural Disasters

The article offers a geographical perception of the relationship between social (anthropogenic) and geographical processes including their effects that becomes clearly evident in the case of natural disasters. In modern times, geographical processes are often overlooked as participants in the formation of landscapes. The article considers them from the viewpoint of their visibility in the social sphere, that is, from the viewpoint of the social memory of natural disasters as preserved in oral, written, and architectural accounts as well as other results of human actions in nature. We compare the social memory of natural disasters with the so-called “geographical memory” reflected in the impacts of geographical processes that are visible in the landscape, for example, in features of the relief. The geographical perception of the social and natural elements of the landscape or the imprint of social and geographical processes on the landscape, which can be viewed as a palimpsest, depends on the place and time of observation and on the size and frequency of events. Using selected examples we showed that a quantitative definition is possible of the impact of individual factors on the development of the landscape, which is important for the assessment of geographical processes and for decision-making related to the extent, rationality, and necessity of human interventions in nature. In this framework we also confirmed the importance of the geographical information systems for geography.

Soil erosion on agricultural land in Slovenia – measurements of rill erosion in the Besnica valley

The article describes soil erosion in Slovenia. There is little concrete data on soil erosion due to the lack of awareness of this process and the fragmentation of farmland. Long-term measurements of soil erosion have only been done at one location; elsewhere, there have only been short observations and calculations and modeling on the basis of empirical equations. To increase our knowledge of this phenomenon, we took measurements of soil erosion on a field in the Besnica Valley northwest of Kranj. With the decrease of agricultural land use in Slovenia due to natural, social, and economic factors, the amount of material lost to erosion has decreased in the last few decades. For protection from erosion, various preventive methods such as terracing, mulching, and contour plowing are employed. The awareness that protection against erosion is a demanding and long-term task is gradually increasing, but nothing can replace the soil that has been lost due to erosion.

Damage caused by natural disasters in Slovenia and globally between 1995 and 2010

This paper describes the damage caused by natural disasters in Slovenia and around the world between 1995 and 2010. The fundamental purpose of the article is to present damage caused by different natural hazards in Slovenia and abroad together with the analysis of the amount of damage caused by natural disasters together and a discussion on the comparability of data. Described is the damage caused by earthquakes, floods, fires, droughts, strong winds, hail, frost and ice, and landslides and avalanches. From the analyzed material on the amount of damage we can evaluate the financial importance of prevention, which is be a key activity in the field of protection against natural disasters.

Deterministic modeling of landslide and rockfall risk

The article presents two deterministic methods for the elaboration of landslide and rock-fall source area maps and, considering human activity in the landscape, for the elaboration of landslide and rockfall risk maps. Risk maps are one of the fundamental bases for protection against natural disasters since they illustrate the risks to areas of human activity due to various natural processes. Using the weighting method and for the first time the matrix method, we established the extent of land-slide and rockfall source areas in the Upper Savinja Valley and the risk due to these processes relative to settlement, roads, land use, and rivers and streams. The methodology for elaborating maps using both approaches is described in detail as well as the differ-ences between them. The basic purpose of risk maps is to direct human encroachment in the landscape to safe areas.

Classification of natural disasters between the legislation and application: experience of the Republic of Serbia

The paper discusses the definitions of natural disasters and recommends the implementation of definitions and classifications of natural disasters in accordance with those decreed at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and Munich Re insurance Company (Munich RE) for administrative use in the Republic of Serbia. For the Republic of Serbia, the issue of natural disasters is presented both through government documents (e.g. the Law on Emergencies and the National Strategy of the Protection and Rescue in Emergencies) and the survey of the frequency and typology of disasters. Significant discrepancies exist between older and more contemporary classifications of disasters in Serbia. They are especially emphasized in comparison to the CRED and Munich RE classifications and databases. This causes problems in the monitoring, recording and assessment of the effects of natural disasters. It is proposed that definitions be adapted and implemented into legislative and other documents.

Is hail suppression useful in Serbia? – General review and new results

Anthropogenic influence on weather has been increasingly published and discussed in the last decades. Climate changes caused by inadvertent anthropogenic influence are well underway. Hail suppression, which has been proven to have no influence on weather, will be considered in the article. Even though hail suppression as scientifically ungrounded activity seemed to promise certain success several decades ago, it has spread over the whole territory of the Republic of Serbia after abundant experience, when many developed countries have given up on this activity. Reasons will be presented for the senselessness of hail suppression based on the latest research. By processing all hail data from the territory of Serbia in the period from 1967 to 2010, it was found out that the hail trend is rising which is in contrary to expectations and previous claims that hail suppression decreases hail frequency.

Karst as a criterion for defining areas less suitable for agriculture

The proposed European Union indicators for defining areas less suitable for agriculture in Slovenia are not entirely appropriate because taking them into account would omit some distinctly and clearly unsuitable areas–for example, Suha krajina (Dry Carniola) and Bela krajina (White Carniola)–and farmers would be unjustifiably financially harmed. In such a case, every European Union member state has the right to propose an additional indicator to reduce such discrepancies. With regard to actual natural conditions, in Slovenia especially some karst landscapes would be unjustifiably omitted, and so we have proposed a karst indicator as an additional criterion based on the distribution of karst (i.e., carbonate) rocks. Through spatial coverage of karst rocks and soils, we determined whether more reasonable and less strict application of European criteria regarding soil could be satisfactory for better results in defining areas less suitable for agriculture in Slovenia.

The History of Acta geographica Slovenica

Acta geographica Slovenica is a research journal for geography and related disciplines published by the Anton Melik Geographical Institute of Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. It has been published since 1952 and is the second-oldest Slovenian geographical journal. Volume 50 was published in 2010, and this article is dedicated to this special anniversary. The journal was only published occasionally until 1976, when the volume 14 appeared, but afterwards it began to be published annually, with two volumes a year since 2003 (volume 43). With volume 43, the journal was included in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). Since 2010, it has also had an impact factor. For 2009, this factor was 0.714, which ranks the journal in third place among all indexed Slovenian journals. In all the volumes, a total of 273 research articles have been published on more than 12,000 pages; half of these articles were written by the institute members.

Probability modelling of landslide hazard

In this journal, the authors (Zorn, Komac 2004) previously described the use of two deterministic methods for establishing the possibility of landsliding. This time, they take a step forward and using the example of the flysch Goriska Brda hills present the probability modelling of landslide hazard. In probability methods, the intensity and distribution of the processes are established by comparing indirectly determined landscape elements and the actual situation, while in deterministic methods, subjective decisions have an impact on the result. We have elaborated a probability map for landslides with a fixed return period using the Dempster-Shafer method on the basis of the data on 800 landslides that occurred with intensive precipitation in the fall of 1998.

Modelling of the Aral and Caspian seas drying out influence to climate and environmental changes

The complete drying out of the Aral and Caspian seas, as isolated continental water bodies, and their potential impact on the climate and environment is examined with numerical simulations. Simulations use the atmospheric general circulation model (ECHAM5) as well as the hydrological discharge (HD) model of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Meteorologie. The dry out is represented by replacing the water surfaces in both of the seas with land surfaces. New land surface elevation is lower, but not lover than 50 m from the present mean sea level. Other parameters in the model remain unchanged. The initial meteorological data is real; starting with January 1, 1989 and lasting until December 31, 1991. The final results were analyzed only for the second, as the first year of simulation was used for the model spinning up. The drying out of both seas leads to an increase in land surface and average monthly air temperature during the summer, and a decrease of land surface and average monthly air temperature during the winter, above the Caspian Sea. The greatest difference in temperature between dry and not dry cases have the same values, about 7–8 °C in both seasons, while daily extremes of temperature are much more pronounced. In the wider local/regional area, close to both seas, drying out leads to a difference in average annual temperatures by about 1 °C. On a global scale, the average annual temperature remains unchanged and the configuration of the isotherms remain unchanged, except for over some of the continents. In winter, Central Asia becomes cooler, while over Australia, southern Africa, and South America, it becomes slightly less warm. Furthermore, a new heat island occurs in western Sahara during summer.