The terraced landscape in the Brkini hills Ažman Momirski, Lučka; Kladnik, Drago
Acta geographica Slovenica : Geografski zbornik,
01/2015, Letnik:
55, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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This article presents cultivated terraces as social and economic landscape elements that are closely connected with natural conditions. The theoretical part, which presents some of the professional ...activities connected with terraced landscapes and examples of studying them around the globe, is followed by a detailed presentation of the features of the unique terraced landscape in the Brkini Hills, Slovenia. Its features, changes, and development trends are placed within the context of the natural features of the area studied, especially its relief conditions and aspect, as well as unfavorable demographic characteristics and modern agricultural trends. Despite modern mechanized farming, the remaining farmers are finding it increasingly more difficult to maintain the cultural landscape. The former tilled terraces were converted into meadows decades ago. Many terraces are being overgrown. Afforestation threatens the future existence of cultural landscapes and affects their development potential and significance as a cultural value.
The book offers multi-layered responses to the scope and causes of spatial, as well as social, economic and physiognomic changes in the cultural landscape in Slovenian countryside. It presents the ...results of an interdisciplinary research approach to recognising spatial change and trends within a two-year research project entitled “The Transformation of the Landscape by Agricultural Modernisation and Changes in Settlement Patterns”, which was financed by the Slovenian Research Agency and the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Slovenia within the target research programme Slovenian Competitiveness 2006–2013. Similar research was carried out in three pilot areas, selected because they captured a cross section of typical Slovenian landscape macro-units (Mediterranean, Dinaric, Alpine and Pannonian), while also covering the processes of intensification and marginalisation.
Monitoring the transformation of the Slovene countryside revealed that there are relatively heavily urbanized flatland and valley areas, and on the other, peripheral areas where depopulation and the ...disintegration of the cultural landscape are increasingly pronounced.For the evaluation of the countryside and its typological division, objective criteria are selected that reflect the natural conditions, the principal characteristics of agriculture, and the fundamental demographic, economic, functional, housing, infrastructural, and environmental conditions. Overall, the evaluation is based on the level of individual settlements which enables thorough spatial differentiation. A complex evaluation is carried out by establishing the value and representation of individual groups of parameters and their corresponding weights. On the basis of partial syntheses, two synthetic maps of developmental movements in the countryside are presented that provide a solid foundation in the effort to ensure harmonious regional development.
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