As an example of long-term human intervention onto karst geomorphology, the article deals with the area of the Logaško polje, where degradation processes of dolines have been very intense during the ...last fifty years. The analysis of aerial photographs from different periods (years 1944 and 2000) was carried out on a study area of 604 ha. It showed that 77.5 % of dolines (441 of total 569) have completly disappeared mostly by being filled up with different waste materials (excavation material, municipal, industrial and building waste etc.) or they were built up while 22.5 % (128) of dolines have been entirely or partly preserved. Several anthropogenic factors that had an important influence on doline-changes are being evaluated. Despite the fact, that doline is a typical geomorphological feature in karst landscape the public (local or state) and the scientific sphere pay little attention on their geomorphological preservation and protection. Considering the paradigm of sustainability, the landscape and its landforms, as they are part of Earth’s surface, would need to be classified as a non-renewable natural heritage or even non-renewable natural resources.
This volume (‘Former waste disposal sites in dolines and gravel pits’) presents former waste disposal sites in depressions (dolines and gravel pits) using relief analysis of the former and current ...landscape and based on comparing them with one another. A comprehensive methodological approach has been created called the three-dimensional (3D) model, which is used to detect and record unknown, hidden former waste disposal sites in depressions above sensitive aquifers. The research deals with the problem of former waste disposal sites from the viewpoint of discovering them, creating a registry, and studying noticeable surface effects on the landscape (relief, soil, and vegetation).
Mismanagement practices, such as unsustainable waste disposal, created many degraded sites. In karst landscapes, old uncontrolled landfills are often located in dolines (sinkholes). Buried waste ...material in dolines represents degradation of landform, habitats and a potential danger of groundwater pollution. Buried waste provides heterogeneous ecological conditions on the surface, thus plant communities or individual plant species that developed on the surface of landfills can be used as a bioindicators of waste-filled doline sites and therefore indicators of land degradation. We aimed to discover the potential of vegetation to detect unknown locations of old dump-sites in suffusion dolines in Logaško polje (Dinaric Karst, Slovenia), either by plant communities or by plant species. We aimed to ascertain whether vegetation can indicate the dumping period by estimation of community succession stage. Locations and the age of waste-filled dolines (doline-dumps) were preliminary identified by a historical landscape study. Thus, we used time series of aerial photographs and digital photogrammetry tools for 3D modelling of historical terrain. Ecological evaluation was based on sampling the floristic composition of plots (5x5 m). We analysed ecological conditions by Ellenberg bioindicator values, structure by life history traits and naturalness by hemerobic levels of plants. We studied in detail 30 up to 50-years-old waste-filled dolines that are interspersed by dry and mesic grasslands. Ecological evaluation demonstrated that the main driver of ecological diversity at doline-dumps is the time at which the doline was backfilled and succession started. Annual and eutrophic communities dominate the youngest doline-dumps, middle aged doline-dumps are covered by nitrophilous perennial forbs and, finally, communities developed towards mesic grassland. We conclude that plant communities in combination with diagnostic plant species can be used as a bioindicators of doline-dumps in agricultural landscape of Logaško polje and can therefore indicate the sites of potential groundwater pollution sources but not the type of long-time buried waste. Key words: suffusion dolines, plant communities, waste dumping, Ellenberg indicator values, polje.
Vrtača, unikatna kraška oblika in rezultat dolgotrajnih krasotvornih procesov,v Sloveniji ni posebej zaščitena v nobenem pravnem dokumentu. Na izbranih primerih so predstavljene značilnosti ...tradicionalne in sodobne rabe vrtač, primeri trajne degradacije ter vidnejši negativni in pozitivni okoljski učinki. Predstavljeni so obstoječi načini zaščite in možnosti za trajno ohranitev vrtač pri načrtovanju rabe prostora.
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