Miroljub Milinčić

Possibilities for mountain-based adventure tourism: the case of Serbia

Abstract Adventure tourism is a specific type of tourism that has been increasingly popular in Serbia in recent years. In this regard, the paper identifies the basic characteristics of adventure tourism, its development in Serbia, with a great emphasis placed on high mountain areas that, owing to their physical and geographic characteristics, possess huge potential. The paper aims, among other things, to identify factors encouraging or limiting development of adventure tourism in Serbia, analysing the practice, defining potential destinations and suggesting appropriate measures in order to promote it

Management of Spring Zones of Surface Water: The Prevention of Ecological Risks on the Example of Serbia and South Eastern Europe

Society has been living long in conditions of local and regional environmental risks caused by the growing demands, falling quality and diminishing, absolute and relative availability of water resources. Ecological risks, but also poverty of most of the world’s population, are causes as well as consequences of the deficit of water resources. It has placed extremely complicated and complex tasks in front of fundamental and applied disciplines, social practice and different levels of political security decision making – how to solve environmental risks in the area of providing water, water protection, protection from water, fair distribution of water, problems of upstream and downstream interests in the basin etc. Previous practice shows that intensity adjusted interaction in due time between man and environmental risks, especially in these cases where basic problems are water resources, leads to the improvement of social organization and arrangement of space. By contrast, bad attitude towards water resources and systems for their control causes the problems in the development and decline of many societies. Although relatively rich in water resources, regions of South Eastern Europe (SEE) a high degree of ecological vulnerability. Recent growing potential of environmental risks in the area of water resources is caused by climate change and substantially inefficient transition of social system, and delay in the development of large-scale water management infrastructure.

Factors triggering landslide occurrence on the Zemun loess plateau, Belgrade area, Serbia

Among the numerous factors that trigger landslide events, the anthropogenic impact caused by inadequate planning and faulty land use in urban areas is increasing. The Zemun settlement on the northern outskirts of Belgrade has experienced a number of landslides in the last three decades, endangering buildings and roads, and claiming human lives, particularly in the case of the 2010/2011 landslides. Selected meteorological parameters were used to calculate rainfall erosivity indices such as Precipitation Concentration Index and Modified Fournier Index over the period 1991–2015. Drought indices, Lang aridity index and Palfai Drought Index were calculated as well. Mann–Kendall trend test was applied to identify potential rising and/or declining trends both in meteorological parameters and calculated indices. Trend analysis of the annual and seasonal scales yielded a statistically significant trend in the spring time series. Stable arid and pronounced drought conditions were recorded. The modified Fournier index based on monthly mean values yields moderate aggressiveness, with several extreme values indicating very high erosivity classes, especially for 2010/2011. The geological substrate is predominantly loess and hence highly susceptible to erosion and slope failure when climatological conditions are suitable. Accelerated urbanization at the end of the last century reduced vegetation cover, intensified pressure on the vertical loess slope, and lacked suitable rain drainage systems so that surface-water runoff was directed into the porous loess, thereby endangering slope stability. We proposed a geomorphic model to describe the nature of the erosional processes on the loess cliffs of the Zemun loess plateau. Results from this study have implications for mitigation strategies.

A new genus and a species of trechine ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Trechinae) from the Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

A new genus (Punctoduvalius gen. n.) and a species of trechine ground beetles (Punctoduvalius orlovacensis sp. n.) from Bosnia and Herzegovina have been described and diagnosed. Punctoduvalius gen. n. is clearly distinct from all other phenetically close genera in many important respects, such as: the presence of depigmented reduced eyes, the presence of a pigmented eye border, the presence of deep and complete frontal furrows, the presence of tiny setae on the genae, the presence of distinct longitudinal fissures on the protibias, the ratio of length/width of the first protarsal article in males, the presence of two elytral discal setae, the presence of numerous setiferous punctures in interstrial spaces, the specific position of the humeral setae, and the specific shape of the copulatory piece. This new genus comprises four species: Punctoduvalius pilifer (Ganglbauer, 1891) (endogean from Mts. Treskavica and Bjelasnica, and from a cave on Mt. Visocica, Bosnia and Herzegovina), P. protectus (Winkler, 1926) (from the Pecina kod Ostojica Cave, Mt. Treskavica, and endogean from Mt. Jahorina, Bosnia and Herzegovina), P. brevipilosus (Knirsch, 1927) (endogean from Lupoglav Peak, Mt. Prenj, Bosnia and Herzegovina), and P. orlovacensis sp. n. (from the Orlovaca Cave, village of Donje Bisevo, near Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The four species clearly differ in many important respects. The following three taxonomic changes are proposed: Punctoduvalius pilifer (Ganglbauer, 1891), comb. n., P. protectus (Winkler, 1926), comb. n., and P. brevipilosus (Knirsch, 1927), comb. n. The new genus and its members belong to an old separate phyletic lineage, distinct from all other existing species groups. Additionally, these forms are relict and endemic to the deep soil and caves of Bosnia and Herzegovina. [Acknowledgments. This study was financially supported by the Serbian Ministry of Education and Science (Grant No. 173038).]