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The Balkan countries undergoing the transition must advance their economies to be more competitive. The aim of this paper is to analyse economic growth with a primary focus on the analysis of economic convergence in the Balkan region in the period of 1997-2020. The research analyses the following Balkan economies: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. This study applies Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic growth and is based on the neoclassical economic growth model: the Solow's convergence concept. The results show that the Balkan countries experienced economic convergence with a speed of 1.82% in the cross-sectional model and 7.87% in the panel data model. It means that the initially less developed economies noted higher economic growth than those richer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the statistical parameters that give a comprehensive overview of the socio-demographic state of the border areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it represents a novel attempt to examine the disparity and relationships between central and peripheral parts of national territory. The methodology is based on examining the differences between border and non-border municipalities/cities according to four groups of indicators, to obtain four indices: depopulation, natural change, ageing and education. Statistically significant differences were found primarily in the context of population age structure, and it can be concluded that the ageing process has affected bordering regions more than the rest of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Kras/Carso Food Tour to present the challenges of developing a luxury tourism product. The tour's design followed the current strategy of the Slovenian Tourist Board, which defines specific criteria for a luxury experience. Contextualized by the experiential trends in tourism, the paper juxtaposes the bottom-up and top-down perspectives on luxury experiences. The authors argue that mediation by experts familiar with academic discourses and local culture is beneficial for the development of a successful tourism product. The study contributes to the debates on luxury tourism, which have neglected bottom-up perceptions in tourist discourse and overlooked the dilemmas people face when »luxurifying« their traditions and heritage practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present a systematic review of tourism certification, labelling and branding research. To review the scientific literature, we followed the PRISMA methodological approach. We started by outlining the spatial and temporal distribution of research linked to certification, labelling and branding, carried out in the social sciences and humanities. In the second step, we extracted the theoretical definitions and characteristics of these three processes in tourism from a selected body of literature. We continued by analysing hierarchical and non-hierarchical relations between certification and branding, and by drawing conclusions linked to duality, or even contradictions that are emerging in this field of tourism research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores marital matching patterns from the perspective of the partners' educational attainment, focusing on the link between gender asymmetry in education and educational hypergamy. In order to assess to what extent the tendency for women to marry men of higher educational status is related to the educational gender gap in Serbia and Slovenia, we calculate an index for women's educational advantage, and an index for the prevalence of educational hypergamy. Our results confirm the following: the growth of education is associated with an increase in female educational advantage; the relationship between female educational advantage and educational hypergamy is strongly negative; and there are no significant differences in assortative mating patterns between Serbia and Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various ice bodies are an important source of paleoenvironmental data, and their study improves the understanding of present and future environmental conditions. Their changes are an important indicator of climate change. This special issue of Acta geographica Slovenica draws attention to the changing and disappearing cryosphere across the globe, with an emphasis on the southeastern Alps, and the necessity to conduct research in this field before the ice disappears forever. This paper briefly summarizes the current body of knowledge on glaciers, permafrost, cave ice, lake and river ice, and snow in the southeastern Alps, and it presents the contribution of Acta geographica Slovenica to this research and the main highlights of all five papers included in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyse the socio-economic territorial impact of photovoltaic parks in the rural area of Giurgiu County. The analysis valorises two types of data: the statistical information on the local socio-economic features provided by the National Institute of Statistics and the Giurgiu County Statistics Office, and the specific information about the photovoltaic parks revealed by the interviews applied to the local authorities during field investigation. The case-studies discussed in this paper reflect the socio-economic effects of building and operating the six photovoltaic parks as in the three rural local administrative units - LAU2: Izvoarele, Stăneşti and Malu. This study emphasizes four types of the socio-economic effects of investment in a photovoltaic project on: local rural economy, land use changes, local investments, budget and local labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents and discusses the landslide research procedure related to the topography before and after its occurrence, using the comparative analysis of two medium-resolution digital terrain models. The case study is the Jovac mega-landslide - the largest landslide to occur in Serbia in the last 100 years, active for three days in February 1977. The indicators used to determine the volume and movement mechanism were the spatial distribution of elevation differences within the two digital terrain models (DTM), and the analysis of geomorphological features before the landslide. The obtained elevation differences allowed the definition of the approximate landslide volume: 11.6×106m³. All the data obtained indicate that the movement mechanism falls into the category of earthflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to provide an overview of the most important parameters (the occurrence, frequency and magnitude) in Vojvodina Region (North Serbia). Monthly and annual mean precipitation values in the period 1946-2014, for the 12 selected meteorological stations were used. Relevant parameters (precipitation amounts, Angot precipitation index) were used as indicators of rainfall erosivity. Rainfall erosivity index was calculated and classified throughout precipitation susceptibility classes liable of triggering soil erosion. Precipitation trends were obtained and analysed by three different statistical approaches. Results indicate that various susceptibility classes are identified within the observed period, with a higher presence of very severe rainfall erosion in June and July. This study could have implications for mitigation strategies oriented towards reduction of soil erosion by water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the beginnings of exonym standardization and some characteristics of the oldest exonyms in two similar Slavic languages, Croatian and Slovenian. It uses the comparative and exemplar methods. It is found that these processes were influenced by the sociopolitical environment of the time, especially language policies. It is shown that the nineteenth century was favorably inclined toward exonyms. They were often written inconsistently and unsystematically because there were no spelling norms for their writing and use. For some, the influences of foreign languages (German, Italian, etc.) are obvious. Numerous transitional forms also appeared, which did not become established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new integrated model based on SWOT and extended PIvot Pairwise RElative Criteria Importance Assessment (PIPRECIA) that offers a systematic approach to strategic planning in tourism. The applicability of the proposed integrated model is demonstrated through a case study defining the main determinants of tourism development in Serbia. The result emphasizes the strategy Improving the organization, management, and enhancement of tourism development as the highest priority for implementation. The model facilitates decision-making in tourism, and its key advantages are its suitability for application in group decision-making and its simplicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the role of stakeholders in creating and managing food tourism experiences. The main aim was to discover who participates in this process, why, and how. The research is based on interviews and participatory observation of twenty-two case studies mainly located in rural areas in eight Mediterranean countries. The paper focuses on two types of food experience: food events and food services with additional subtypes. The results reveal three models of stakeholder collaboration: one typical for events, one typical for services, and one emphasizing more direct interaction between visitors and local communities. The findings show diversity in the connections among stakeholders, who have different motives and roles in food experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the integration of gastronomy in the creative place-making process. The study is based on the interviews with the organizers of five gastronomy events: a cooking workshop, a gastronomy festival, a series of gastronomy events at museums, a gastronomy theatre performance and an intimate dinner event. The contextual analysis shows that gastronomy events can contribute to five important features defining quality of place: diversity, liveliness, innovativeness, creativity and openness/tolerance. The final phase of our study brings comparison with findings in art-based place-making studies and discusses on diversity, integration in development policies and replicability potential of analyzed gastronomy events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents various collective instruments used in the labelling, certification and branding of cheeses in the southeastern Alps of Slovenia and Italy. Based on long term ethnography it discusses four case studies of Montasio, Bovec, Tolminc, and Mohant cheeses, that were awarded protected designation of origin at European Union level. The impact of geographical indications on the local dairy chains is compared to other instruments, ranging from top-down European and national quality schemes and inventories of traditional agricultural products and heritage, to grass-root initiatives such as Slow Food instruments and local brands. The study finds substantial difference in the use and impact of geographical indications in Italy and Slovenia, as well as several ambiguous and dissonant effects in all the identified instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on five culinary events on Slovenia's Karst Plateau (Kras). It presents visitors' motives for attending these events, their satisfaction with them, and their views on sustainability. These traditional culinary events, which take place in the same gastronomic region, differ in their scale, theme, character, and history. A survey was conducted among 244 visitors, approximately 50% of whom had a university degree. The most important motives for their visit include local cuisine; experiencing something new, different, or special; and exploring natural heritage and especially cultural heritage. Visitor satisfaction is the greatest at boutique culinary events, where the main theme is highlighted more strongly than at large-scale culinary events. The main challenge in terms of the sustainability of culinary events is public transport access to the venues. Significant progress would be made by reducing the amount of disposable packaging made from non-sustainable materials. The key to successful culinary events is high-quality services and ingredients, where the word local is key. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dam construction is one of the major human pressures impacting fluvial processes, including topography and hydro-sedimentary flows, as a result of the change in flow regime from fluvial to fluvial-lacustrine. This paper investigates geomorphic changes at Iron Gates I, the largest reservoir on the Danube River, completed in 1972 for hydropower and navigation. The study focuses on a gulf area that emerged at the mouth of the Cerna River into the reservoir, highlighting spatial changes in topography and sediment distribution, based on a diachronic analysis of two datasets before and after the dam was built: one extracted from historical topographic maps and the other obtained from a bathymetric echo sounding survey, integrated within a GIS analysis. The results reveal the dominance of the sedimentation process, with an alluvium layer thickness up to 14 m. The current sediment pattern has changed the submerged morphology, leading to the formation of an alluvial fan at the mouth of the Cerna River and of a sedimentary bar between the Cerna Gulf and the Danube River's channel. The siltation process together with the current underwater morphology limits ship traffic and the storage capacity of the reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the marriage and childbearing trends in Croatia and Slovenia from 1985 to 2017. We made a comparative review of several indicators related to marriage and childbearing trends: mean ages of women at first marriage and first childbirth, birth rates, births within and outside marriage, total fertility rate, tempo-adjusted fertility rate, age-specific fertility rates, and marriage rate. The analysis is based on the official statistical data provided by the statistical offices of both countries and Human Fertility Database. Many of the indicators, including the birth rate, total fertility rate and age-specific fertility rate, are somewhat more favourable in Slovenia than in Croatia. One of the major differences between the two countries is that in Slovenia the connection between marriage and childbearing is not as nearly significant as in Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lowered snow line in Alpine valleys as a local weather phenomenon often varies from one valley to another. The relief morphology of the valleys and the intensity of precipitation play a crucial role in the variation. In Slovenia certain valleys are more susceptible to this phenomenon than others, one such example being the Planica Valley. This paper examines the occurrence of a lowered snow line in the Planica Valley and the Vrata Valley during the winter seasons of 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. Precipitation events accompanying the occurrence of a lowered snow line were analyzed, and data on temperature and precipitation were included in the analysis. Results showed a striking degree of congruence of the phenomenon in both valleys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will present a systematic review of the main publications for landscape and tourism research in Scopus and polish language databases. These were used to identify papers on landscape and tourism published from January 2003 to September 2013. A total of 382 articles and 37 other sources were identified, but 116 analysed. The analysis, focusing on the explicated relation between landscape and tourism, shows that it is a new but growing concern for geographers, ecologists, and landscape architects contributing to the debate. The result is a veritable smorgasbord of definitions and approaches. The objective of this paper is to systematise the current knowledge on tourism and landscape, review the existing definitions of the term »tourist landscape«, and determine its aspects and components in the context of functions of regions. The paper concludes with a tentative definition of a tourist landscape and proposals for further scholarly research and some policy advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper present a multi-criteria decision DEXi model for assessment of less favoured areas (LFAs). The tool enables easier assessment of farming in different areas of Slovene LFAs with respect to criteria of sustainability. Analysis of LFAs and final integration of the assessment of LFAs depend upon various criteria. In this paper we analyze individual LFAs and farming systems in these areas at the state level with respect to criteria of sustainability and farming potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a country with abundant natural resources, Slovakia has legislation to protect significant parts of nature and landscape. The paper aimed to identify the extent and nature of land cover changes in large protected areas in Slovakia and to determine how had these changes impacted the diversity and ecological stability of the landscape. We used the CORINE Land Cover data from 1990 and 2018 to identify landscape changes and analyzed them spatially and statistically. Overall, 21.7% of the total area was changed. In terms of landscape changes, nine dominant sub-processes within five»land cover flows«were identified. In terms of changes in landscape diversity and stability the most significant changes occurred in the NP Nízke Tatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, numerous countries have been facing the issue of population ageing, which poses a formidable challenge for many sectors, including transportation. Alas, there are no detailed or insightful studies that involve the analysis of the elderly, which is why the authors of this paper decided to research the issue to determine which features of mobility are common among senior citizens (aged 60+). In our study, we focused on Bałuty, a district located in Łódź. The applied research tool was an interview questionnaire which consisted of eight questions. Since transportation is a fundamental human need, maintenance of the mobility of the elderly at an acceptable level is crucial as it directly impacts the quality of their life. What is more, a change of motivation and mode of transport is recommended for this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on determining the degree of correlation between land-use changes and demographic development in Slovenia. The authors conclude that there is still insufficient evidence in the literature for a correlation between these two processes, because quantitative studies addressing these links are very rare and mostly cover small and specific areas. In the case of Slovenia, Spearman's correlation coefficients are quite low, which confirms that land-use change processes are complex and not dependent solely on individual demographic and socioeconomic factors. Despite the low correlation coefficients, our findings indicate that changes in land use are significantly influenced by changes in age structure and population growth. In areas with population growth the share of arable land is shrinking, whereas in areas with depopulation and a rising aging index the share of partially overgrown land is growing. In the following analysis, the authors focus their analysis on a case study of the Mura and Central Slovenia statistical regions, which lie on opposite poles with regard to development, and thus show differing trends in land-use changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is perceived as a strongly desired final destination for many refugees and immigrants due to its socio-economic advantages. The author assesses the Canadian praxis of the immigrant settlement from the community development standpoint, with a specific interest to present how successful Canadian immigration policy has been on the local level by using the established Local Immigration Partnerships model. On the other hand, by adopting the so-called restricted model of immigrant integration Slovenia has not developed a consistent model of integration, specifically leaving aside the potential of local areas in resolving these complex issues. The paper is confirming that due to institutionalized multilevel partnership Canada has been more successful in immigrant integration than Slovenia. In both countries, however, integration into the health system has been evidently the most acute problem. In order to obtain more relevant results, a mixed-methods research was used combining interviews and integration indexes. In the majority of integration parameters, Canada shows significantly better results than Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentrating incomes in large cities has encouraged the development of specialist services and the opening of big commercial units. The downfall of ideological barriers east of the former Iron Curtain made global culture combine with endemic sub-cultures, influenced by the living standard. The only limitation of this process appears to be social segregation which restricts demand and creates preferential segments of users. In Romania, financial segregation is directly reflected in the commercial investment made in Bucharest and in the large cities, mostly in the centre and western part of the country. The paper analyses the correlation of financial and commercial services, as well as their location and dispersion strategies at the level of the Romanian urban system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses findings from sustainability studies to present the development of environmental urban geography in Slovenia in recent decades. Modern European cities, of which Ljubljana is no exception, depart significantly from sustainable development concepts. Compared to other similar cities, Ljubljana has an effective green space system, which its residents also perceive as offering a better-quality living environment. The major, poorly addressed problems are primarily inherited issues, such as gravel pits, illegal dumping sites, and unregulated gardens in suburbanized water protection areas on which residents depend. These, however, show a large gap between claimed and actual environmental awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the concept of participatory urbanism and analyses its practical implications in the context of the City of Ljubljana. It assesses the potential of participatory methodology for physical and social interventions in public spaces through the case-studies of two creative spatial practices: urban community garden Onkraj gradbišča/Beyond the construction site and community-led renovation of Savsko naselje neighbourhood. It indicates how bottom-up initiatives can contribute to sustainable development of an urban area, especially to its environmental and social features. It concludes with the ideas of how cities might engage with bottom-up spatial practices to increase the effectiveness of urban spatial planning, management and administration, and to boost their green creative image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the key question as to what matters more in understanding the residential location of the creative class in Slovenia: the city-region or the urban-rural framework? Our analysis shows that differences in residential concentrations of the creative class vary more within city-regions (on an urban-rural framework) than between city-regions. Moreover, the creative class is moving out of densely populated urban areas to more sparsely populated suburban/rural areas within all city-regions. There also are significant differences between more developed western Slovenia (denser settlement structures) and less developed eastern Slovenia (sparser settlement structures). We conclude that new models of living promote dispersion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical and conceptual introduction for the Special Issue on the role of green creative environments in sustainable urban and regional development. The idea is based on the assumption that concepts of creativity mostly address economic issues and to a lesser extent social issues, while green concepts predominantly deal with environmental aspects. Therefore, we lack a deeper insight into the interrelations between creative and green environments in urban and regional development. This special issue addresses this research gap through investigating 1) the residential preferences of the creative class in city-regional, urban and rural settings, 2) participatory urbanism as a tool for creative interventions in urban planning, and 3) the importance of green amenities as spatial attraction factors for small creative actors. We argue that green creative environments can contribute to sustainable urban and regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new index for determining the shape of land parcels. Parcel shapes are usually represented descriptively (i.e. ribbon-shaped, rectangular, irregularly shaped), which is useless for automated distinguishing between parcel shapes or for determining and distinguishing between the patterns formed by parcels. Thus, we developed a Parcel Shape Index (IOP) to describe parcel shape characteristics, and then tested it in the test area of Gorenje pri Divači to analyse selected fields - as irregular blocks, enclosures, continuous strips, and furlongs. We found that IOP allows for a differentiation of parcels according to their shape as well as parcel patterns formed due to the individual types of dividing arable land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a study on floods in the Ochotnica River catchment during forty years of hydrological observations (1972-2011). The Ochotnica River is located in the Gorce Mountains, in the Polish Western Carpathians. The characteristics of floods in the Ochotnica River channel were analyzed using limnigraphic records of water levels at the Tylmanowa gauging station and of precipitation based on data from the Polish Institute of Meteorology and the Water Management Station at Ochotnica Górna. Flood types were determined. The predominant type of floods in the Ochotnica River are normal floods with a discharge of 3.80 to 11.94m3/s in winter and 4.74 to 16.40m3/s in summer. The dominant recent process is incision, at an average speed of 3.2 cm/year. Similar results have been observed in other mountain rivers in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of their specific physical characteristics (altitude, slope, orientation, climate), mountain environments have an important natural diversity. In particular, their geodiversity is generally much larger than in the lowlands, and because mountain geosites are often very aesthetic, mountain areas present a great potential for geoheritage, geoconservation and geotourism studies. This paper reviews six reasons why this potential is high and concludes that mountain areas are particularly interesting to develop educational programs on three current environmental issues: climate change; natural hazards; and human impacts on particularly sensitive geomorphological environments. Then, the paper reviews the principal research in the field of geoheritage currently carried out on these three topics and presents two case studies in the Italian Dolomites and the Swiss Alps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a methodology for localizing theoretical interchange nodes used for interchange between suburban and urban public transport in thirteen regional capitals in the Czech Republic. This methodology is based on the use of current timetables and simulation of more than 2,500 public transport connections between selected surrounding municipalities with significant commuter flows and randomly selected urban public transport stops within the regional capitals. The second part of the paper focuses on particular interchange nodes. Regional capitals are divided into groups according to the level of centrality of interchange nodes and the prevailing orientation of the transport mode. The article also analyzes the time stability of localized interchange nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical discussion of Romania's south-west, analyzing the proposal that the Timiş-Cerna Corridor should be systemically considered anisotropic. The aim of our paper is to test the possible anisotropic matrix system by using a methods approach based on interpreting human and material mobilities in the area. We use the theoretical framework of regional geography in a systemic context and specifically the concept of anisotropy defined as a territorial anomaly in homogenous and polarized regions, in order to reveal the social and physical relations in which anisotropy is embedded. Our results show that the Timiş-Cerna Corridor is an anisotropic area fitting the structural system of this specific type of space as the dynamics of flows inside the axis are asymmetrical, generating disparities, while transit flows are predominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the first comprehensive national analysis of changes in discharge regimes of rivers in Croatia. Seven types of discharge regimes have been defined for rivers in Croatia. We analyzed the changes in discharge regimes of all types, comparing the standard period from 1961 to 1990 with the most recent period from 1990 to 2009. We found evidence of a redistribution of discharge throughout the year, an increase in autumn and winter discharges (especially for rivers dominantly fed by snowmelt), and a decrease in summer discharge values. Furthermore, we detected a change in the month of the appearance of mean discharge maxima and minima. In most cases, the changes can be explained by changes in the regime of climate elements (temperature, precipitation, and evapotranspiration). The results are consistent with those from upstream countries; that is, Slovenia, Austria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture plays an important role in both protecting and developing farmland. In Slovenia, the main reasons for this loss are urbanization and the implementation of large development projects that require the destruction of fertile farmland. About 3000ha of farmland has been lost each year since Slovenia's independence. The importance of agriculture and farmland is touched upon in this special issue of Acta geographica Slovenica. The authors focus on management of farmland, analyse the development potential for agriculture, observe the changes in the landscape by remote sensing, soil quality and its pollution, and land cover as an element of biodiversity. They draw attention to the lack of participation in spatial planning procedures and the question of the importance of agriculture and jobs in this sector in national economy. This introductory paper brings a short analysis of how the issue of farms' spatial constraints and moving farm structures to new locations is perceived by municipal offices, nature parks, and the Slovenian Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry and its regional offices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The town of Rasa was mentioned in the tenth-century work De administrando imperio by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. The significance of this town in the Middle Ages is indicated by the fact that this toponym appears on old maps created by the greatest European cartographers from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Based on cartographic and historical geographical sources, this paper considers various perceptions and texts connecting the town of Rasa with today's town of Ražanj or with the medieval Serbian capital Ras. The subject treated is historical social geography. Five types of sources were used for the historical geography of the Balkans: old maps, chronicles, geographical nomenclature, archeological findings, and ethnographic findings. Based on written sources, geographical names, and geographical logic, the authors provide their own conclusions about the geographical position of the town of Rasa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper refers to the issue of the damaging consequences of the ongoing rural area transformation in Poland in a dynamically developing economy, with a simultaneous lack of adequate planning tools of countryside management. Lack of strategic documents recognise the importance of rural area development leads to irreversible changes, presented on the basis of the issue of farmland merging and the depletion of farmland resources. As a solution guaranteeing comprehensive rural management, agrarian arrangement plans of communes (AAPC) and agrarian arrangement projects of villages (AAPV) have been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth in the border villages of Srem (Vojvodina, Serbia) has been analysed in this paper, with the goal of explaining how and why it differed from other areas in the region. Special attention has been paid to the 1990s, because these villages became part of a border region and a high level of migration on the territory of the former Yugoslavia occurred, much of it through this territory. The results of the research are derived from literary resources and applying mathematical and statistical procedures in the processing of data received from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. They were checked on the field via a questionnaire. This paper is significant because it enriches knowledge about villages of Srem, the municipality of Šid and population trends at the end of the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the area of Sombor and Apatin there are a number of cultural institutions. The paper will cover the Museum of silk damask in Bezdan, Tobacco Museum in Telečka and the Ethnological Exhibition in Kupusina. The aim of this paper is to assess the market attractiveness, the sensitivity of cultural property, the state of repair, the existence of cultural property management plan, regular monitoring and maintenance, potential for ongoing investment, the possibility of a negative impact of a large number of visitors to the physical condition of cultural resources and the possibility of modifications as part of the product development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L.) have greatly expanded in both distribution and abundance during the last few decades, and are the most abundant cervids in Europe today. The aim of this paper is to determine the factors that have the most considerable impact on roe deer numbers in the Vojvodina region (North Serbia). Environmental (area in ha, total area of forest and total area of meadows and pastures in hunting ground) and anthropogenic (number of registered hunters, number of hunting sections, number of gamekeepers and roads in km on 1,000 ha) factors had been shown to influence the number of roe deer in Vojvodina region. A multiple regression analysis was carried out as the main statistical approach. The mapping of certain parameters was done using ArcGIS 9.2 software in order to establish the relation between the roe deer population and the different environmental and anthropogenic conditions. The results signify that the roe deer number dependency in the Vojvodina region is a very complex and multi-factorial phenomenon, strongly influenced by human induced modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent forest fire in the Republic of Serbia is discussed concerning classification, legislative framework and fire management, giving a detailed analysis of the forest fire occurrence. Analysing past and predicting future fires are crucial for policy development and forest management practices to prevent and mitigate fires. Fire hazard is discussed through several fire protection and prevention legislative documents. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall test was used to analyse resent forest fire data in an attempt to find causality in occurrences and frequency. The meteorological data and fire statistics provided by the Serbian Hydro-meteorological Service and the Ministry of Interior/Sector for Emergency Management of the Republic of Serbia were used to calculate the Forest Fire Weather Indices, along with deficit or surplus of precipitation for the case study of Tara Mountain. The paper highlights the need for better hierarchical classification of fire hazards and its harmonisation along with standardisations presented by leading international research institutions. A significant correlation between meteorological parameters and forest fire occurrence was found. This opens a possibility for further investigation and analysis of geophysical and anthropogenic driven factors that can influence disaster occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought indices are commonly used for detection, monitoring and evaluation of drought events. One of the most commonly used drought indices is the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). This paper presents the effect of theoretical distribution selection on SPI values, and the analysis of drought events for five selected meteorological stations in Slovenia. We found that the SPI on the annual time scale shows a similar pattern of occurrence of dry and wet periods at Ljubljana-Bežigrad, Novo mesto, and Trieste meteorological stations; something similar can be said for the Celje and Maribor-Tabor stations. The analysis of the correlations between the standardized data river discharge and precipitation data for the selected river basin of the River Pesnica shows the strongest correlation between the SPI-2 and standardized discharges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 1912 is annus mirabilis for Earth sciences. In two crucial papers Alfred Wegener and Milutin Milanković independently set up revolutionary theories based on far-reaching visions of continental drift and climate orbital forcing. Their contributions simultaneously did for the Earth sciences what the theory of evolution did for biology and what the theory of relativity did for physics. They provided Earth sciences with a comprehensive perspective of Earth's dynamics in both astronomical and terrestrial terms, and revolutionized geology by abandoning the ideas of a climatologically self-sufficient Earth and unmovable continents -- remnants of the old geocentric picture of the unmoving, centered Earth. In the secular sense they finally completed the heliocentric theory that was set up by Copernicus. This paper follows the strange synchronicity in their life and work cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on caves in Pleistocene carbonate conglomerates in Slovenia and for the first time defines them as eogenetic. The conglomerates show no deep burial that would resemble the mezogenetic stage of diagenesis and are still in the phase of early diagenesis (i.e. eogenetic stage). Based on speleological analysis the eogenetic caves were grouped into four types; (1) linear stream caves, (2) shelter caves, (3) breakdown caves, and (4) vadose shafts. All four types of caves, described in this paper, can appear individually, however, complex cave systems are often a combination of passages of different types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both research and policy require a transparent approach to monitoring and managing natural and cultural heritage because landscape quality has become a key concept in landscape planning. This paper introduces an advanced approach to natural and cultural heritage inventory for the study of heritage trees. Because trees play different roles in society, different regulations apply to their preservation, which can lead to inconsistencies in records for heritages trees. The inventory of heritage trees and their types in the study area identified within the Karavanke Natura 2000 project, which is presented in this paper, is based on existing lists of heritage trees, fieldwork, and interviews. A new database of heritage trees has been established in which the advantage of geographical information systems unifying various data sources is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents some geographical characteristics of investment development in the first years of the 21st century, covering at least fragmentarily the gap in Slovenia's economic geography. In the process we tried to draw attention to the sporadic character and rapid developmental changes in economic geographical events within production systems. In the paper we focus on the geographical distribution of investments and their impacts on regional development. Special attention is devoted to studying the spatial distribution of investment activities relative to factors such as the amount, development, branch structure, and distribution of the amount of investment that indicate the diversification and development of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever increasing urban population growth has created many implications in land use planning in the most of developing countries. Traditional methods of spatial planning are still useful, but they need to be upgraded according to new methodological, technological possibilities and full complexity of spatial planning. The factors which influence the urban structure and its socio-economic life are countless, and so to deal with a huge set of data, Geographic information system (GIS) techniques can help to organize and control the impact of different problems. Urban utilities are the vital elements to provide comfort and amenity for the residents. Clearly in many cases the inappropriate sitting of urban infrastructures has decreased the efficiency and sustainability of the cities. Today GIS as powerful processing means can provide different alternatives for land use planning. One of the most socio-religious urban land uses in Iran is cemetery. Traditionally cemeteries are located in the vicinity of a holy shrine or specified by the local authorities. However, these sites are suitable by the view of people and religious groups but they impose many physical problems such as poor health conditions or accessibility due to the rapid expansion of the city by the population increase. This paper attempts to select a right site for a new cemetery in town Sanandaj, as the old one now has no empty space. The paper applies GIS and Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) techniques to find an appropriate area. The results show that the integrated GIS and AHP model has a high potential to compare different alternatives by investigating multi-criteria models and different factors which are involved in an urban utility site selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper assesses the earthquake vulnerability of multi-residential buildings in Slovenia, although it is limited to the buildings that were built before 1981, in the time when the earthquake building codes were much less elaborated than today. In the paper, based on the building completion year, buildings are classified into different time periods, which are characterized by important historical events and bigger changes in earthquake building codes. The assessment of earthquake vulnerability is based on the data from the building completion year, number of storeys, prevailing structural material and the year of the last renovation as obtained from the last census of the population, households and apartments completed in 2002. The result is an estimation of the earthquake vulnerability of a building, also because for very similar buildings the earthquake resistance depends on the architectural design of a building, the amount and layout of its structural elements, foundations, soil profile and other influences. In the first part of the paper the multi-residential buildings are divided by age, material and number of storeys. In the second part, the assessment of the earthquake vulnerability of these buildings is divided into three classes: a) probably earthquake unsafe, b) probably earthquake less safe and c) probably earthquake safe. Additionally the earthquake vulnerability assessment is presented geographically by showing the earthquake less safe and unsafe buildings on the maps and charts for different communities in Slovenia. It has been concluded that the earthquake safety of many multi-residential buildings in Slovenia might be questionable, while we have detected also bigger differences between communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia along the lower reaches of the Dragonja River, acute since the two countries gained independence in 1991. It is the most hotly contested border dispute point between the two countries except for the maritime border in Bay of Piran. The area with small villages of Mlini-Škrile, Bužini and Škodelin is known in the literature as the »area along the Dragonja River«, »the area of double records« or »the case of four villages«. The paper begins by describing reasons for the southern border of the Municipality of Piran from geographic and economic aspects. It focuses on changes of borders from the legal aspect between and after World War Two. Situation on site is described for the last 60 years, based on a field research. The paper concludes by outlining the principle of international law »uti possidetis« and its possible implications for the area in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]