Drago Perko

A methodology for natural landscape typification of Slovenia

Based on digital data on relief, rock, and vegetation, the most significant elements of the internal structure of Slovenian landscapes and at the same time of their external appearance, a geographic information system and verification in the field were used to create several natural landscape typologies of Slovenia with a varying number of types. The most generalized typology is based on the spatial overlap of four relief, seven lithological, and seven vegetation units. It has twenty-four landscape types: four flat, eleven low hilly, six hilly, and three mountainous types.

Europe's landscape hotspots

The main purpose of this analysis is to identify places in Europe that can be described as very diverse according to various natural landscape types or landscape regions. In order to obtain these “hotspots,” several geographical divisions of Europe were examined. The analysis was performed for most of Europe at 5 km resolution. First, maps of landscape variety were produced based on each division of Europe taken into account. This step was carried out for each cell by counting the number of different unique natural landscape types or regions that are present in a radius of 50 km around the cell. Several maps of landscape diversity were produced using this method. Each of them was then weighted; the cell values were divided by the number of all unique types or regions in a division. In the final stage, all of the maps were synthesized (averaged) into one map showing landscape diversity for Europe. With this data it was possible to determine Europe’s landscape hotspots and to define the most naturally heterogeneous countries. Among all of the European countries, Slovenia has the highest average landscape diversity; the highest absolute landscape diversity is located in the Norwegian part of southern Scandinavia.

Surface Roughness and Land Use in Slovenia

The article describes characteristics of several relief indicators (surface height, surface slope, surface aspect, height coefficient of surface roughness, slope coefficient of surface roughness, and aspect coefficient of surface roughness) relative to various types of land use in Slovenia and establishes the con-nection between surface roughness and land use and between relief indicators and individual types of land use.

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.

Atlant and Slovene national consciousness in the second half of the 19th century

The geographic literature made an important contribution to the development of national consciousness among Slovenes in the 19thcentury, as well as to the reinforcement of Slovene identity after Slovenias independence in 1991. A typical example of this kind of geographic publication is Atlant, the first atlas of the world in the Slovene language, which was published in installments from 1869 to 1877. Atlant followed the concept of a Unified Slovenia, and this idea boosted the confidence of Slovenes, the bulk of whom were incorporated into Austria-Hungary as they entered the stage of European politics as a nation for the first time. With the publication of Atlant, a number of geographical names were trans-lated into Slovene or Slovenized for the first time. The geographic, linguistic, and political conditions in which Slovenes lived, as well as the relations at the time between Slovene, German, and Slavic languages, are reflect-ed in the way foreign place names were adapted. The reprinting of Atlant in 2005 is also associated with a critical period in history, since it was published after the independence of Slovenia and its inclusion in the European Union, a time when the young state has been seeking its identity among all the worlds nations.

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.

Landscape characteristics of common land in Slovenia

Common land is land with an ancient form of ownership. At one time it was economically important, but now its importance lies in the preservation of cultural landscapes and ecological balance. This article uses the geographic information system to analyze selected landscape indicators with respect to various types of agricultural land and determine whether and to what extent the assertion holds true that in Slovenia common agricultural land is preserved primarily in areas with poorer natural conditions for agriculture.

Differences between 100-meter and 25-meter digital elevation models according to types of relief in Slovenia

Studying relief and landscapes, we often employ digital elevation models. Their applicability is primarily linked to their accuracy. In this paper, we compare the older 100-meter digital elevation model of Slovenia and the more recent 25-meter digital elevation model. We assess applicability relative to differences in surface heights, surface slopes, and surface aspects for all of Slovenia and for four areas with different relief. We compare the frequency of distribution, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, range, and the coefficient of variation. The statistical analysis of the two digital elevation models of Slovenia indicates that the smallest differences exist relative to surface heights, there are larger differences relative to surface aspects, and the largest differences exist relative to surface slopes.

Determination of landscape hotspots of Slovenia

Based on digital data on relief, rock, and vegetation, the most significant elements of the internal structure of Slovenian landscapes, and their external appearance, a geographic information system was used to calculate landscape diversity of Slovenia. Areas with high landscape diversity are landscape hotspots, and areas with low landscape diversity are landscape coldspots. One-tenth of Slovenia with the highest landscape diversity was defined as landscape hotspots, and one-tenth of Slovenia with the lowest landscape diversity was defined as landscape coldspots. Most landscape hotspots are located in the Alpine part of Slovenia (more than two-thirds of their total area), and most landscape coldspots in the Dinaric part of Slovenia (almost half of their total area).

Six Decades of Human Geography and Environmental Protection in Acta geographica Slovenica

This article presents the position of human geography, landscape ecology, and environmental protection and how these areas have developed over the sixty years that the journal Acta geographica Slovenica/Geografski zbornik has been published. The goal is to present the development and changes in content orientation, changes in research approaches, and changes in article authorship. The overview shows the development of these research disciplines in Slovenia and the research orientations of researchers at the ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute. During the time that the journal has been published, there has been a perceptible shift from defining and analyzing geographical features to a problem-oriented approach, and towards seeking cause-and-effect connections and responses to current social events. In this process, previously dominant individual contributions have been complemented by articles that were the fruits of joint labor and, alongside various Slovenian contributions, the number and thematic diversity of articles by international contributors has increased. Physical and regional geography will be presented in separate articles.