World Regional Geography Book Series Series Editor E. F. J. De Mulder DANS, NARCIS, Utrecht, The Netherlands What does Finland mean to a Finn, Sichuan to a Sichuanian, and California to a Californian? How are physical and human geographical factors reflected in their present-day inhabitants? And how are these factors interrelated? How does history, culture, socio-economy, language and demography impact and characterize and identify an average person in such regions today? How does that determine her or his well-being, behaviour, ambitions and perspectives for the future? These are the type of questions that are central to The World Regional Geography Book Series, where physically and socially coherent regions are being characterized by their roots and future perspectives described through a wide variety of scientific disciplines. The Book Series presents a dynamic overall and in-depth picture of specific regions and their people. In times of globalization renewed interest emerges for the region as an entity, its people, its landscapes and their roots. Books in this Series will also provide insight in how people from different regions in the world will anticipate on and adapt to global challenges as climate change and to supra-regional mitigation measures. This, in turn, will contribute to the ambitions of the International Year of Global Understanding to link the local with the global, to be proclaimed by the United Nations as a UN-Year for 2016, as initiated by the International Geographical Union. Submissions to the Book Series are also invited on the theme ‘The Geography of…’, with a relevant subtitle of the authors/editors choice. Proposals for the series will be considered by the Series Editor and International Editorial Board. This book series is published in cooperation with the International Geographical Union (IGU). The IGU is an international, non-governmental, professional organization devoted to the development of the discipline of Geography. The purposes of the IGU are primarily to promote Geography through initiating and coordinating geographical research and teaching in all countries of the world. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13179 Drago Perko • Rok Ciglič • Matija Zorn Editors The Geography of Slovenia Small But Diverse Editors Drago Perko Rok Ciglič Anton Melik Geographical Institute Anton Melik Geographical Institute Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts of Sciences and Arts Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia Matija Zorn Anton Melik Geographical Institute Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Ljubljana, Slovenia ISSN 2363-9083 ISSN 2363-9091 (electronic) World Regional Geography Book Series ISBN 978-3-030-14065-6 ISBN 978-3-030-14066-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14066-3 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Picture Credit: Anton Balazh – Fotolia.com This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface Slovenia is barely visible as a dot on the globe, and it is among the youngest independent countries in the world, and so at the global level, the average person has never heard of it or knows very little about the country. The editors of the volume The Geography of Slovenia hope that this volume will contribute at least a little to raising Slovenia’s profile. With the subtitle Small but Diverse, we wish to emphasize that, despite its small size, Slovenia is above average in its geographical richness. The subject matter of this book is divided into 23 chapters. The introductory chapter pres- ents Slovenia as a European landscape hotspot. The other 22 chapters are grouped into 5 parts according to content. The first part is devoted to physical geography. It consists of six chapters dealing with rocks, landforms, water, climate, soil, and flora and fauna. The second part is dedicated to human (cultural) geography. It also consists of six chapters, dealing with archae- ology, history, people, settlements, the economy, and culture. The third part of the book has three chapters and is more regionally oriented. It describes the regions, landscapes, and maps of Slovenia. The fourth part of the book, consisting of five chapters, presents the human impact on the environment and vice versa. It mostly deals with natural hazards, land use, regional development, human-induced degradation, and protected areas. The first two parts are more analytical, and the third and fourth parts are more synthetic. The last part has two chapters. It places Slovenia in the world and in Europe in a comparative manner. All the chapter authors are employed at the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). ZRC SAZU consists of 18 research institutes throughout the country and has more than 300 employees, roughly 250 of whom are researchers. Most of the chapters were written by members of the Anton Melik Geographical Institute and one chapter each by members of the Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, the Institute of Archaeology, and the Milko Kos Historical Institute. The Geographical Institute was founded in 1946 by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 1976, it was named after Slovenia’s greatest geographer, academy member Anton Melik (1890–1966). Since 1981, the institute has been one of the members of ZRC SAZU. Since the very beginning, the institute’s main task has been to conduct basic and applied geographi- cal research on Slovenia and its landscapes and to prepare basic geographical texts on Slovenia as a country and as part of the world. The institute has nine organizational units: the Geographical Museum, the Geographical Library, the Department of Physical Geography, the Department of Human Geography, the Department of Regional Geography, the Department of Natural Hazards, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Geographic Information Systems, and the Department of Thematic Cartography, which produced all the maps for this volume. These maps and the many figures will help readers understand the con- tents of all chapters of the book The Geography of Slovenia. Ljubljana, Slovenia Drago Perko Rok Ciglič Matija Zorn v Acknowledgments The material in this book is partly based on the results of research programs and projects co- funded by the Slovenian Research Agency. The authors of the chapters acknowledge financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency: program no. P6-0101 (Geography of Slovenia) for Chaps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23, program no. P1-0236 (Biodiversity: Patterns, Processes, Predictions, and Conservation) for Chap. 7, pro- gram no. P6-0064 (Archaeological Research) for Chap. 8, and program no. P6-0052 (Basic Research of Slovene Cultural Past) for Chap. 9. In addition, the authors of Chaps. 14 and 15 acknowledge financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency and the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, project no. L6-6852 (Landscape Diversity and Hotspots of Slovenia) and project no. L6-3643 (Determining the Natural Landscape Types of Slovenia Using a Geographic Information System), and the authors of Chap. 19 acknowledge financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency, the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, and the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, project no. V6-1652 (Model of Joined Physical and Development Planning at the Regional Level). The editors of this book would like to thank all the reviewers for their time and effort and for their insightful comments on the chapters, which improved the manuscripts, and of course all the authors that participated in this book despite being very busy with their own research projects. The editors would also like to thank the Department of Thematic Cartography of the ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute for the thematic maps in all the chapters, created by Manca Volk Bahun. In addition, we acknowledge cartographic contributions by Jerneja Fridl (ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute) in Chap. 1 (Fig. 1.3) and Chap. 9 (Figs. 9.2. and 9.5), Rok Ciglič (ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute) in Chap. 1 (Figs. 1.10 and 1.11), Mateja Rihtaršič in Chap. 9 (Fig. 9.3), Daniela Ribeiro (ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute) in Chap. 18 (Fig. 18.7), and Mateja Breg Valjavec (ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute) in Chap. 20 (Fig. 20.4). Thanks to Erik Logar (ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute) for drawing the charts. The editors appreciate the many photographers whose work has not only made this book much colorful and appealing to readers but has also make the text more accessible.