Within the context of EU efforts to achieve the objectives of sustainable development, this article presents the findings of a study that uses a selection of thirty-two economic, social, and environmental indicators to evaluate the extent of achieving these objectives in Slovenian statistical regions from 2010 to 2014. Based on the favorable or unfavorable state and trends established, the indicator values are assigned scores that make it possible to calculate the average values for individual development areas and their total average (i.e., the indicator of sustainable regional development). The calculations confirmed the hypothesis that the differences between Slovenian regions are the greatest with regard to economic issues and the smallest with regard to environmental issues. Both in Slovenia and in the EU in general, unfavorable environmental trends resulting from unsustainable use of energy and natural resources persist, even though Slovenia%s environment remains above average in terms of its conservation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 65210466
The article analyzes Roma settlements in Slovenia and identifies opportunities for their comprehensive integration into the Slovenian settlement system. This is a spatial planning of economically and culturally specific environments at the local level, characterized by processes of marginalization and ghettoization. Due to particular problems like illegality, unsolved ownership, structural and infrastructural problems etc., the planning process of Roma-settlements must be adopted in term of steps and conditions. This might be done by using of a five steps planning approach (briefly): creation of definition, solving ownership, opening the settlement concept, sanation, integration. In particular, three principles are important: a) sustainable use of space and resources (that make autonomy of settlements); b) principle of active participation (that make local partnership) and c) principle of legality.
COBISS.SI-ID: 64891234
The article presents a simple quantitative model for geodiversity evaluation, which merges spatial relationship of geodiversity elements with terrain data. The model is partially automated in geographic information system tools to eliminate the majority of subjectivity in evaluation. As a result, it can be used for different environment types and is applicable for comparative studies. The method was applied to the Škocjan Caves Regional Park, which is one of the most diverse karst areas in the world. The geodiversity element types were identified through remote sensing data and basic field mapping. Their diversity was subsequently defined through block statistic tools in a geographic information system programme. The geodiversity index was calculated from a number of different geodiversity element types within defined spatial units and from the terrain ruggedness index. Areas of high geodiversity index or geodiversity hotspots are in strong correlation with the most diverse areas of the regional park, which are also currently promoted for geotouristic and educational purposes.
COBISS.SI-ID: 63468386
Forests in Submediterranean Slovenia are threatened by wildfires every year. The article presents the main characteristics of post-fire regeneration in the Karst area. The rate of succession was studied by comparing two burned sites with different periods after the last fire. Field plant sampling was used to determine the plant cover and species composition on each site. Vegetation characteristics were contrasted with nearby unburned sites. We found that the plant species composition of burned areas is similar to that of areas unaffected by wildfire, and that the monitored site has been colonised by specific pioneer plant species five years after the wildfire.
COBISS.SI-ID: 65210210
Despite a general harmonization of the water management and spatial planning in the Water Directive (2000), the preparation of the river basin management plans takes place without considering the wider developmental factors in the area. In the article, we propo-se a more comprehensive or geographical approach to professional analysis relevant for river basin spatial planning by combining the DPSIR model with professional analysis in spatial planning. Thus, we are linking the environmental aspect of river basin planning with a broader developmental aspect. The proposed approach was implemented and eva-luated in the case of the Kokra river basin in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 68776802