Zsolt Bottlik

The impact of topography on social factors, a case study of Montenegro

Relationships between environmental and social factors have long been studied by geographers. Nowadays, GIS-aided statistical analysis provides new tools to explore these relationships. In order to detect the impact of topography on social factors, we selected the country of Montenegro as a case example due to its high topographic variability. We compared the spatial pattern of population, settlements and ethnic minorities to physical geographic factors, especially to topography, but lithology and land cover data were also taken into consideration. We found that certain factors are closely correlated, e.g. the settlement density linearly decreases with elevation, while the characteristic settlement area shows an exponential increase upwards. The population density is not related to absolute elevation, but it is in close correlation with height (i.e. elevation relative to the local minimum). Population change and illiteracy are also topography-related social factors. On the contrary, the variable ethnic pattern of Montenegro is influenced by historical, political and economic effects rather than by environmental factors or topographic features. As a conclusion we state that in the scale of a country or a region, the environment can strongly impact some social factors.

Changing human-environment interactions in medium mountains: the Apuseni Mts (Romania) as a case study

The study of human-environment relationships in mountain areas is important for both theoretical and practical reasons, as many mountain areas suffer similar problems, such as depopulation, unemployment and natural hazards. Medium mountains constitute a special case within mountains, because they are more populated but less attractive as tourist destinations than high mountains. In this context, the Apuseni Mts (Romania) are considered as a case study. In this paper, we apply GIS-based, quantitative methods to characterize the strength and dynamics of human-environment interactions, taking into consideration some environmental factors (elevation, relative height, slope, river distance, lithology, land cover, natural attractions) as well as historical population and recent tourism data. We found that population density has strong (r2>0.8) relationships with all relief factors (elevation, relative height, slope, river distance), and that best-fit functions are nonlinear. We outlined the varying demographic scenarios by elevation zones and interpreted the historically switching sign of population change versus elevation relationship. We demonstrated that lithology also has an impact on the spatial distribution of population, although it is not independent from the relief effect. The land cover of the mainly cultural landscape is very strongly correlated with relief parameters (especially slope), which suggests good adaptation. We pointed out the dominance of karst objects in the natural tourism potential of the Apuseni Mts and also explored further components of real tourism (spas, heritage, towns). Finally, we concluded that the environmental settings investigated do in fact constrain the spatial framework of society, but socio-economic changes in history can be explained from the side of society, which conforms to the theory of cultural possibilism.