Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in ...land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-scale wildland fire statistics across European countries, there is still a crucial need to collect and summarize in-depth local analysis and understanding of the wildland fire condition and associated challenges across Europe. This article aims to provide a general overview of the current wildland fire patterns and challenges as perceived by national representatives, supplemented by national fire statistics (2009–2018) across Europe. For each of the 31 countries included, we present a perspective authored by scientists or practitioners from each respective country, representing a wide range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds. The authors were selected from members of the COST Action “Fire and the Earth System: Science & Society” funded by the European Commission with the aim to share knowledge and improve communication about wildland fire. Where relevant, a brief overview of key studies, particular wildland fire challenges a country is facing, and an overview of notable recent fire events are also presented. Key perceived challenges included (1) the lack of consistent and detailed records for wildland fire events, within and across countries, (2) an increase in wildland fires that pose a risk to properties and human life due to high population densities and sprawl into forested regions, and (3) the view that, irrespective of changes in management, climate change is likely to increase the frequency and impact of wildland fires in the coming decades. Addressing challenge (1) will not only be valuable in advancing national and pan-European wildland fire management strategies, but also in evaluating perceptions (2) and (3) against more robust quantitative evidence.
Predstavljena je brezstropa jama v Podbojevem lazu, v severozahodnem delu Rakovega Škocjana. Opisane so morfometrične in morfogenetske značilnosti več odsekov brezstrope jame in njene okolice. ...Brezstropa jama se je razvila iz epifreatičnega jamskega sistema, ki je deloval kot odtočni sistem iz doline Raka. Na podlagi podrobne morfometrične analize pobočij je bilo ugotovljeno, da brezstropa jama ni nastala sočasno. Zaradi neuravnanega površja je bil jamski strop denudiran postopoma.
Increasingly severe hydrological extremes are predicted for the Pannonian Basin as one of the consequences of climate change. The challenges of extreme droughts require the adaptation of agriculture ...especially during the intense growth phase of crops. For dryland farming, the selections of the optimal land use type and sustainable agricultural land management are potential adaptation tools for facing the challenges posed by increased aridity. To this end, it is indispensable to understand soil moisture (SM) dynamics under different land use types over drought-affected periods. Within the framework of a Slovenian–Hungarian project, soil moisture, matric potential and rainfall time series have been collected at three pilot sites of different land use types (pasture, orchards and a ploughland) in SW Hungary since September 2018. Experiments were carried out in soils of silt, silt loam and clay loam texture. In the summers (June 1 to August 31) of 2019 and 2022, we identified normal and dry conditions, respectively, with regard to differences in water balance. Our results demonstrated that soil moisture is closely controlled by land use. Marked differences of the moisture regime were revealed among the three land use types based on statistical analyses. Soils under pasture had the most balanced regime, whereas ploughland soils indicated the highest amplitude of moisture dynamics. The orchard, however, showed responses to weather conditions in sharp contrast with the other two sites. Our results are applicable for loamy soils under humid and subhumid temperate climates and for periods of extreme droughts, a condition which is expected to be the norm for the future.
U nekoliko srednjeeuropskih država promjene uporabe zemljišta mogu se analizirati na temelju Franciskanskog katastra. Glavni je cilj članka analizirati dinamiku uporabe zemljišta uz pomoć ...Franciskanskog katastra i suvremenih podataka o uporabi zemljišta. Studija je provedena na temelju izračuna strukture uporabe zemljišta i metrike krajolika za dio regije Slovenske Gorice u Sloveniji. Analiza je pokazala da je šumska površina proširena, a da su površine s oranicama i vinogradima smanjene. Današnji je krajolik općenito sastavljen od manjeg broja zakrpa, ali su oni veći i nepravilnijih oblika.
The retreat of ice shelves and glaciers over the last century provides unequivocal evidence of recent global warming. Glacierets (miniature glaciers) and ice patches are important components of the ...cryosphere that highlight the global retreat of glaciers, but knowledge of their behaviour prior to the Little Ice Age is lacking. Here, we report the uranium–thorium age of subglacial carbonate deposits from a recently exposed surface previously occupied by the disappearing Triglav Glacier (southeastern European Alps) that may elucidate the glacier's presence throughout the entire Holocene. The ages suggest the deposits' possible preservation since the Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas. These thin deposits, formed by regelation, are easily eroded if exposed during previous Holocene climatic optima. The age data indicate the glacier's present unprecedented level of retreat since the Last Glacial Maximum and the potential of subglacial carbonates as additional proxies to highlight the extraordinary nature of the current global climatic changes.
In several Central European countries, land use changes can be analysed on the basis of the Franciscan Cadastre. The main aim of the paper was to analyse land use dynamics with the Franciscan ...Cadastre and modern land use data. The study was carried out by calculating land use structure and landscape metrics for a part of Slovenske Gorice region in Slovenia. The analysis showed that the forest area expanded, and fields and vineyards areas diminished. In general, today’s landscape is made of less patches, but they are larger and of more irregular shapes.
Na slovenskem krasu je več različnih tipov kontaktnega krasa. Najpogostejši je ponorni tip kontaktnega krasa, ki se pojavlja med fliši in apnenci. Najdaljši kontakt te vrste v Sloveniji je na območju ...Matarskega podolja v zahodni Sloveniji, kjer se pojavljajo mnoge kraške globeli, ki so značilne za kontaktni kras. Reliktni vršaji so značilne oblike kontaktnega krasa, ki nastanejo s postopno denudacijo flišne naplavine in kemično denudacijo karbonatne podlage na območjih vršajev. V raziskavi so bile proučene oblike in procesi na vršajih ter vpliv vršajev na razvoj okoliškega krasa.
Shaping the Geographical Imagination of Slovenian Landscapes in EducationThis volume focuses on Slovenian students’ geographical imaginations of Slovenian landscapes and the impact of curricula, ...syllabuses for selected subjects, and textbooks for them. It proceeds from the premise that photographs play an important role in shaping and maintaining individual and collective conceptions of landscapes. The introduction builds a theoretical framew`rk based on the concepts of landscape, geographical imaginations, and visuality. This is followed by a chapter presenting results of an analysis of twenty-five syllabuses for seventeen primary- and secondary-school subjects referring to shaping landscape imaginations. The third chapter brings results of an analysis of 949 photogrῡphs from fifty primary- and secondary-school textbooks. The fourth chapter presents the results of the analysis of questionnaires completed by 722 students and twenty-seven teachers from seventeen Slovenian primary schools and eight secondary schools. The fifth chapter synthesizes all of the findings.
This book (‘Spatial and regional development of the Mediterranean: A unified approach and selected tools’) discusses the main development challenges and factors influencing the attainment of ...territorial cohesion and competitiveness of Mediterranean regions. In addition to the main physical and socio-geographic features, it summarizes some of the results of the transnational project OTREMED (Tool for the Territorial Strategy of the MED Space). The methodology for developing a uniform approach to spatial and regional planning in the Mediterranean macroregion – or a tool for uniformly monitoring the area’s development challenges – has been developed as part of this project. This tool is based on selected development factors and indicators, which are presented in greater detail for the Mediterranean part of Slovenia.
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