SOME NEW ASPECTS OF LAND USE IN SLOVENIA NEKAJ NOVIH VIDIKOV RABE TAL V SLOVENIJI Matej Gabrovec Drago Kladnik Carst field Lučki dol with the church sv. Ožbolt (photography Igor Maher). Kraško polje Lučki dol s cerkvico sv. Ožbolta (fotografija Igor Maher). Abstract UDC: 911.2:711.14(497.4) Some New Aspects of Land Use in Slovenia KEY WORDS: land use, rural geography, tipology, Slovenia Because of its exceptional role in determining the appearance of the landscape, land use has long been a recognized subject of research in geography as much abroad as in Slovenia. This article first gives a brief survey of the notable achievements of Slovene geographers. The continuation presents the results of analyses of the reciprocal correlation between land use and several important landscape elements (lithological structure, climate types, and altitude) carried out with the help of the Geographical Information System and the IDRISI computer program. Attention is drawn to new aspects of presenting the occurrence of individual land categories based on uniform large deviations from the average occurrence of certain categories in the country as a whole. Also presented are a test survey of predominant land use on the basis of arability equivalents and an improved survey of the typology of the change in land use, this time undertaken for the period between 1961 and 1994. Izvleček UDK: 911.2:711.14(497.4) Nekaj novih vidikov rabe tal v Sloveniji KLJUCNE BESEDE: raba tal, agrarna geografija, tipologija, Slovenija Raba tal je zaradi svoje izjemne vloge pri opredeljevanju pokrajinskega videza že dolgo hvaležna tema preučevanja geografije tako v svetu kot v Sloveniji. V prispevku je najprej podan kratek pregled vidnejših dosežkov slovenskih geografov. V nadaljevanju so prikazani rezultati analiz medsebojne soodvisnosti rabe tal in nekaterih pomembnih pokrajinskih prvin (litološke sestave, podnebnih tipov in nadmorske višine), izvedenih s pomočjo Geografskih informacijskih sistemov in računalniškega programa Idrisi. Opozoriti velja tudi na nove vidike prikaza zastopanosti posameznih zemljiških kategorij, ki temeljijo na enakomerno velikih odklonih od povprečne zastopanosti določene kategorije v državi kot celoti. Predstavljen je tudi poizkus prikaza prevladujoče rabe tal na osnovi ornih ekvivalentov, izpopolnjen pa je tudi prikaz tipologije spreminjanja rabe tal, tokrat izveden za obdobje med letoma 1961 in 1994. Address - Naslov Matej Gabrovec, Ph. D. Geografski inštitut ZRC SAZU Gosposka 13 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia Phone - telefon: +386 (0)61 125 06 68/301 Fax - faks: +386 (0)61125 77 93 E-mail - e-pošta: Matej@zrc-sazu.si Drago Kladnik Inštitut za geografijo Trg francoske revolucije 7, p. p. 466 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia Phone - telefon: +386 (0)61213 541 Fax - faks: +386 (0)61213 458 E-mail - e-pošta: Drago.Kladnik@Uni-Lj.si 8 Contents - Vsebina 1. Introduction 11 2. Previous Studies in Slovene Geography 12 2.1. A Survey of the Most Important Articles and Studies 14 3. Work Methods 15 3.1. Sources 15 3.2. Land Categories 16 3.3. Spatial Units 17 3.4. Calculations and Graphical Processing 20 3.5. Survey of the Distribution of the Main Land Categories 23 4. Basic Characteristics of Land Use 31 5. Land Use Dependent on Selected Natural Factors 39 5.1. Lithology 39 5.2. Climate Types 40 5.3. Altitude 42 6. Distribution of the Main Land Categories 43 7. Prevailing Land Use 53 8. Typological Survey of the Latest Changes in Land Use 55 9. Summary 57 10. Bibliography 59 11. Povzetek 63 9 1. Introduction Land use reflects a complex correlation between natural, historical, and socioeconomic factors. Among the first to single out is the relief of the surface area reflected in altitude, slope, and exposure of the slopes to the sun. The lithological structure influences both the relief and the land use itself. Among historical factors, land use is largely defined by the characteristics of settling, the economic conditions in the past, and the land ownership situation so closely related to them that it almost extends into the area of socioeconomic conditions. Land use also constantly changes, which is seen in the changing of land categories or their relative proportions. Registering the changes is a demanding and expensive task, and therefore a universal methodology has not yet been advanced. In spite of the most modern aids such as satellites and computers, establishing current land use is still bound to field work that can either confirm or contradict suppositions created by lab work. In nature, it is frequently difficult to distinguish specific land categories since in the process of changing they fall between individual typical forms. In spite of the many problems, the study of land use in geography, and a little less in other spatial planning fields, is relatively well represented. However, interest in this field is apparently declining, a fact reflected in the smaller number of contributions of general character and the smaller number of authors. At the same time, a deeper approach is evident that ensures more systematic and more effective work specialization. It is possible to compare results and seek answers to possible discrepancies. Also, for some procedures in the current contribution, older starting points for the better evaluation of processes are ensured, while some aspects represent innovations that were, at least to some extent, only made possible by the use of modern computer technology. Slovenia belongs among European countries with the smallest proportion of agricultural and cultivable land and the largest proportion of forest. However, in areas with limiting factors for agriculture that is, in areas with poor natural conditions (hilly-mountainous, mountainous-high-altitude, karst, etc.), there is as much as 72% of total agricultural land while only 28% of it stretches in flatland (Slovene Agriculture in Numbers, 1994). According to the area of agricultural land per inhabitant (0.44 hectare), Slovenia is at the European average, largely due to the significant percentage of meadows and pastures. However, there are only 0.12 hectares of cultivated fields per capita, which represents a critical limit to ensuring self-sufficient food production (Gabrovec, Kladnik, Material for the Geographical Atlas of Slovenia). On the other hand, there is more than a half hectare of forest per capita, which considerably more than the norm (0.35 hectare) for satisfactory self-sufficiency in wood. According to estimates, forests cover well over half of the country's surface area, and according to data from the agro-map made in the early 1990's, almost 142,440 hectares or 16.4% of all the available agricultural land is in one phase or another of afforestation (Golob, Hrustel-Majcen, Cunder, 1994). Simultaneously, many tens of thousands of hectares are estimated to be uncultivated or poorly cultivated (Kocjancic, 1983). After World War II, an average of 1700 hectares of agricultural land were permanently lost every year (Leonardi, 1990). In the endeavours to mitigate negative consequences ofthese losses, extensive land amelioration projects were started in the 1970's, among which ecologically controversial drainage projects were in the forefront (Belec, 1982; Kert, 1979; Kladnik, Marjeta Natek, 1989, Maticic, 1983; Marjeta Natek, 1990). The positive side of carrying out amelioration projects was the simultaneous carrying out of land consolidation projects, whose significance was and still is largely disregarded. Such projects (Avbelj, 1986; Slavic, 1983), at least in some places, improved the economy of production that due to the excessive partition of land was on a rather low average level (Kladnik, 1990 a). To prevent the constant reduction of agricultural land, an intervention law was passed in the 1980's. With this law, 427,500 hectares were ranked as first category agricultural land permanently devoted to agricultural use, while another 354,700 hectares were ranked in the second category with less strict protection regime. The law was also based on the results of a study on the categorization of agricultural land (Stritar et al., 1974). 11 2. Previous Studies in Slovene Geography Because of its visual component which reflects complex cause and effect relationships between natural and social elements, land use has been at the center of interest of Slovene geography for a long time. Because of their considerable influence on the development of geographical science, the achievements of several authors from related fields are mentioned (Stritar, Marušič). It is noticeable that in the recent past land use has been given more attention than in the present due to the expansion of subjects for study in the field of geography. Studies in agrarian geography and geography in general were established by Medved (1972). In 1969, Maribor hosted the third conference of the Subcommittee for Land Use in Central and Eastern European Countries, the results of which were published in English and French in Geographica Slovenica 4. Land use is frequently defined in the role of establishing agricultural systems. Work methods changed or improved gradually, and therefore it is possible to see a transition from the once predominant detailed studies of smaller areas to more general studies on the level of Slovenia as a whole in which the spectrum of studied parameters has expanded considerably. To test established theses, detailed field studies were still necessary. With specialization, the number of researchers of land use decreased considerably, but since numerous elements were studied on a wider level and due as well to ever better databases and more capable aids for their faster processing, knowledge regarding this important landscape element has improved greatly. Vrišer's textbook (1995) points to the current specific weight given land use within agrarian geography and by stating land categories in the first place shows the differences between individual continents. In the chapter on regionaliza-tion methods, he also shows the possibilities originating in its detailed studies. Here he points out its importance in defining agricultural (rural or agrarian) systems. Agricultural land on different types of surface in time developed characteristic parcelization; on the basis of field studies, Svetozar Ilešič (1950) divided it into systems (types) of field partitions. At first, the study of land use on the level of cadastral municipalities strongly prevailed. The majority of such studies were made between 1955 and 1975. The geography students at the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts, under the guidance of Svetozar Ilešič and his successors, alone did 42 diploma theses and 71 seminar projects on this subject. Among the students, only Dolores Lavrenčič (1948) tackled land use on the level of Slovenia as a whole in her seminar work. Simultaneously, deeper studies were carried out in some typical cadastral municipalities around Slovenia (Jeršič, Lojk, Olas, Vojvoda, 1962; Klemenčič V., 1962). Their intention was to throw some light on the characteristics of agricultural systems, as much on natural as in socioeconomic conditions. Much attention was paid to the evaluation of the quantity of various agricultural products, and therefore the studies have considerable methodological value for agrarian geography. In this context, the contribution by Milan Natek (1977) may also be included since it primarily illustrates sociogeographic influences on changes in land use. Considerable attention was paid to intensive cultures, reflected in the vineyard, orchard, and hop field land categories. The leading researcher in this field is Belec (1973, 1975, 1978, and 1981). His main focus is the transition of the landscape under the influences of particular cultures. Among the more comprehensive studies of socioeconomic influences on land use on the level of Slovenia as a whole, the articles by Medved (1974) and Kladnik (1983) are worth mention. As a culmination of the classical technique of cartographic overlay in studying the intertwining of landscape elements and searching for new reciprocal connections, we can point to Pokrajinska ekologija (Landscape Ecology) by Gams (1976) in which land use plays the role of synthetic indicator. Quite similar in methodology are the works by Stritar (1971, 1983, 1990), except that the latter puts the soil, or rather its characteristic sequences called pedosequences, in first place among natural factors. 12 These are presented mostly through differences in land use where much attention is paid to differences in growth. In his search for the optimal use of space, Stritar also suggests suitable forms for man's adaptation in individual landscape units. As an important element of landscape transformation, land use in the Dravska dolina (the Drava River Valley) (Zgonik, 1970) and in many other landscape units of our diverse country was studied. In Slovenia, the beginnings of the utilization of a cell network in studying land use reach back to the early 1970's when a theoretical foundation was added to the applications (Orožen-Adamič, 1972, 1973, and 1974). In the 1980's, more modern methods started to prevail, which greatly enriched the spectrum of studies. The first more important research results from landscape architects (for example, Marušič, 1983) then started to appear and were almost without exception based on the cell network. Using the cell network, attempts were made to evaluate the influence of natural and social factors on the intensity of land use and to find new answers in the detailed partition and later reciprocal connection of individual elements (Perko, 1989; Topole, 1990). Due to the need to adapt the parcel network through which socioeconomic aspects were determined to the basic network system, a group of authors (Kladnik, Marjeta Natek, Bat, 1988) established a system of 25 x 25-meter squares. The greatest problem with this type of methodology is the extremely time-consuming creation of the necessary database. It is therefore no wonder that the authors were only able to process 723 hectares of the Dolenja vas cadastral municipality in the Selška dolina (the Selška Sora River Valley). Still, light was thrown on a whole set of connections that only indirectly touch upon land use. The major findings have been presented in geographical publications (Kladnik, 1989 and 1990b; Marjeta Natek, 1989). The first comprehensive geographical study of land use in which the phase of data processing was completely accomplished using computer technology was done by Kladnik (1985 a). Land use was studied for all of Slovenia according to natural geographic units, the administrative municipalities of the time, planning regions, and demographic areas, and the calculations were done in particular for less developed regions. The main results were later published (Kladnik, 1985 and 1988). With the widening use of computer technology and improvements to its ability for use with personal computers, ever more diverse applications appeared that took advantage of the geographical information system (GIS), particularly the digital relief model (Banovec, Hočevar, Kunaver, Petkovšek, 1972; Bat, Gabrovec, 1987; Banovec, 1994). In concrete cases, studies of the countryside presented possibilities for the use of computers (Ogrinc, 1990). Cartographic displays of Slovene territory on the basis of the digital relief model (DRM) also appeared (Perko, 1991 a; Perko, Orožen-Adamič, 1995) along with instructions for its use (Perko, 1991 b) and a synopsis of its other useful aspects (Perko, 1991 c). In the last decade, geographical information systems (GIS) have flourished. Geography did not just stand on the sidelines, and its achievements can be set beside those of geodesy and other spatial planning fields. Perko (1994) also presented one of the most important implementations of GIS's in geography. The use of the rastered GIS and DRM also enabled a series of more detailed studies that were able to illuminate the reciprocal connections between landscape factors and land use more profoundly. These studies mainly tried to establish differences between land use according to the Franciscan cadaster (Milan Natek wrote of its importance for agrarian-geographic studies in 1979), land use according to cadastral data, and land use determined by field work or the analysis of aerial photography. Due to the detailed collection of data and its exceptional volume, the studies were limited to characteristic, carefully selected probe areas that could include entire cadastral municipalities or their individual component parts (Bat, 1990 c; Gabrovec, 1990 and 1995 a; Kladnik, 1990 b). In some studies, the importance of the formation of the relief was put forward (Karel Natek, 1984 and 1993; Gabrovec, 1990 and 1993). This does not mean that other landscape-forming elements were not considered among the influences on land use. Particular articles and studies were even narrower, searching for the correlation between land use and the slope of the surface (Bat, 1990b) or focusing mostly on dolomite surfaces (Gabrovec, 1994, 1995 a, 1995b). 13 Along with computer technology, aerial photogrammetry increased in importance in the studies of land use (Marjeta Natek, 1996) as did satellite surveillance (Pavlin, 1996 a, 1996b) mostly intended to establish actual land use. For various reasons, the cadastral service does not register every change in land use immediately but with a considerable time lag. Therefore, in some places, the actual situation differs from the officially registered situation by up to one third (Kladnik, 1985). While the usefulness of satellite surveillance is still in the testing phase, another method has a relatively long period of applications. Among them, the first to point out is the drawing of agro-maps, the technical basis for the preparation of planning and other important documents for agriculture (Grmek et al., 1987). Unfortunately, different land categories appear in the tables and on the 1: 5000 scale maps than those used in the cadaster, which diminishes their value. Their contribution in recording the land in the process of being overgrown is important, but on the other hand, they do not show the spreading of the forest. Several important geographical studies were carried out by analyzing periodic aerial photography sessions, for example, on land amelioration in the Vipavska dolina (the Vipava Valley) (Marjeta Natek, 1990) and in the border regions of western Slovenia (Pavlin, 1991). To conclude our survey, let us mention the study of land use with special regard to the impact on the environment of artificial fertilizers and sprays (Rejec-Brancelj, 1994): Problem studies of this type have become quite popular and are currently running in many test areas across Slovenia. 2.1. A Survey of the Most Important Articles and Studies Under this special subheading, only those contributions are included that illustrate subjects covering the entire territory of Slovenia and to a certain extent enable reciprocal comparison and supplementation of the results. The first to present the characteristics of land use was Ilešič (1935). These were presented through the analysis of the proportion of cultivated surface areas from the entire surface area of individual cadastral municipalities in Slovenia and in the immediate vicinity inhabited by Slovenes. He relied on cadastral data from the year 1900. Ilešič's work was continued by Leban (1947). The difference between the two is mostly in the fact that Leban calculated and graphically illustrated the proportions of agricultural land, adding pastures to Ilešič's cultivated land (cultivated fields, gardens, vineyards, and meadows). He too used data mostly from 1900 when orchards had not yet been distinguished as a separate land category. For Prekmurje, he took data from 1937. Leban's map reaches far into the surroundings of today's Slovenia. In it, the proportions are united into nine categories, and in this process he searched for ratios between the occurrence of arable land in which he ranked cultivated fields, gardens, and vineyards and the possible secondary dominance of meadows and pastures. In essence, he carried out a simple typification. The first in the line of later more comprehensive studies was performed by Ingolič (1966). Although he relied on statistical data available only for a good sixty of the former administrative municipalities, he presented the basic ratios of land use in Slovenia, establishing them largely through the differences in natural conditions and the methods of husbandry by comparing the proportions of agricultural land, forest, and infertile land. He also roughly analyzed the changing of land categories between 1900 and 1960. He was the first to study the differences between the private and social sectors. Another innovation was the division of intensive land categories into extractive, intensive, structure-forming, permanent, and other cultures. The first culture is composed mostly of cereals, the second of corn and potato, the third of alfalfa and clover, the fourth of vineyards and orchards, and the remainder of industrial plants and garden vegetables. The work by Medved (1970) is an extremely important step in the study of land use. Although his article still deals with the property and socioeconomic structure of households, he designed a typology on the basis of calculating changes between 1954 and 1967 to the surfaces of land categories in 14 individual cadastral municipalities that despite criticism is still often used. He relied on cadastral data; unfortunately, in the very period that he treated, changes occurred in the assessment of the land categories of »poor meadows« (senožeti or kosenice) and orchards. He called the trends in the change of land use »afforestation«, »grassing over« (ozelenjevanje), »urbanization«, and »intensification«. His terminology has also taken root outside the field of geography. According to the markedness of the dominant determined trend, he divided these main trends into distinct, strong, and weak subtypes. His methodology enables graphical and tabular comparison between different time periods. In the period Medved selected, for example, grassing over still prevailed; later, afforestation dominated. In the continuation of his article, he presented cartographically according to administrative municipalities the changes to the surface areas of forest and cultivated land that he separated in his description into arable land and meadow. In his tables, he presented the changes to surface areas from 1939 to 1954. In the conclusion of the article, he systematically cites the wide spectrum of natural, property, social, and economic aspects as factors in the changing of land use. Kladnik (1985) used Medved's methodology to study the typology of changes in land use for the periods 1953-1979 and 1971-1979. He relied on cadastral data for individual cadastral municipalities for the years 1953, 1961,1971, and 1979 provided by the regional geodetic offices. For each of these years, the situation was analyzed according to individual land categories and graphically presented on the level of municipalities together with their proportions. On the basis of the then current legislation, the trends for expected changes in land use were calculated to 1985 and to 2000. Vrišer (1987) rejected Medved's methodology due to certain deficiencies. However, he still used Medved's terminology, but more in the sense of defining the process than in denoting a specific typology. His graphical survey was based on administrative municipalities. He illustrated the changes to the surface areas of the primary land use categories in the twelve main Slovene regions between 1900 and 1981 in the tabular form as well as the trends for 1929 and 1953 for Slovenia as a whole. Vrišer too relied on cadastral data. The main value of his contribution is the extremely systematic survey of the changes in the definition of individual land categories based on cited laws and other relevant sources. The degree of accuracy of the main data sources is evaluated, and the reasons for the considerable differences among them are stated. Also presented are some calculation simplifications that almost all later authors of studies of this kind use due to various changes in the data sources. Let us mention three more presentations of agricultural systems in Slovenia (Vrišer, 1967 and 1988; Medved, 1973). It is interesting that the methodologies employed by the two authors appear identical, but Vrišer's typology is based on the intertwining of surface area occurrences while Medved's is based on the monetary value of the harvest classified into cereals, root crops (both authors include here vegetables and industrial plants), fodder plants (meadows, pastures, and, according to the new classification, silage corn), and special cultures (vineyards, orchards, hop fields). It is interesting that Medved speaks somewhat awkwardly about types of land use although he relies on value ratios in the crops and not on the surface occurrence of individual categories. The types presented are relatively similar in both authors: fodder, cereal, root crops, and special types and various combinations. Vrišer's study for the private sector is based on data from statistical evaluations in 290 agricultural areas for 1965 and 1984, while Medved's study is based on statistical data from administrative municipalities for 1969 and is therefore more general. In Vrišer, the data for the former social sector pertains to individual companies. The findings can be compared, and it is especially convenient that both Vrišer's studies are methodologically completely harmonized. 3. Work Methods 3.1. Sources The basic source in undertaking the study is the data from the land cadaster maintained by the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (Land Cadaster, 1994). The data is assembled 15 on the basis of cadastral records showing current situation in all the cadastral municipalities; however, the data is not up-to-date due to the failure to record changes promptly and indeed lags permanently behind the actual situation. Still, because the data is available in digital form, its importance for the execution of cartographic illustrations is exceptional. To follow ongoing changes in land use, data from the central statistics office is available (Statistics Annual). Data on the private sector is based on evaluations of approximately 300 evaluation regions covering five to ten cadastral municipalities. On the basis of detailed knowledge of the field situation, this data is gathered by statisticians, and actual discrepancies with the situation in the land cadaster are taken into consideration. This data is also presented for former municipalities and current administration units (Krznar, 1995). A weak point of agricultural statistics lies in ensuring data for the former social sector on the basis of reports from labour organizations; the gathering of information with different methodologies can also create problems (Vrišer, 1987). For older periods, we used the database from Kladnik's study (1985), using the data for 1961 as astart-ing point to ensure the comparability of findings with the usual time lines applied in other fields such as demography. Most of the problems in matching two time lines are caused by the continual changes to the borders of cadastral municipalities. On one hand, new municipalities are established, and on the other, the borders between municipalities were changed so that some cadastral municipalities had already been reduced to the smallest common denominator of surface area in the mentioned study. For the year 1900, data from Vrišer's article (1987) and citations from Gospodarska in družbena zgodovina Slovencev (Economic and Social History of the Slovenes) (1970) were used, and in some cases other immediately cited sources were used. 3.2. Land Categories Land use is reflected in the occurrence and distribution of land categories. We decided on the graphical illustration of the proportions of the six basic land categories (cultivated fields, vineyards, orchards, meadows, pastures, and forests) that are the basis of the activity of the primary sector, that is, the various branches of agriculture and forestry. Along with these, the distribution of otherwise diverse infertile land is shown. Among the basic land categories there are several transitional forms whose ratios have changed numerous times in the course of history (Vrišer, 1987). The Emperor Francis' cadaster (1818-1827) distinguished the following types of land: cultivated field, meadow, pasture, forest, and vineyard. It also included land with mixed cultures, for example cultivated fields, meadows, or vineyards containing fruit trees, as well as several special categories: vegetable gardens, ornamental gardens, hop or tobacco fields, olive groves, swamps, quarries, building sites, rivers, streams, etc. As a rule, the culture that occupied the greater part of the parcel was stated. With data from the revised cadaster for 1896, the land was divided into cultivated fields, gardens, vineyards, meadows, pastures, and forest, and the collected data was calculated for communal surfaces and the surface area of fertile land. In Yugoslavia between the two World Wars, agricultural statistics again introduced independent land categories for orchards, swamps and marshes, fishponds, and infertile land. Following World War II until 1955, the independent land category of »poor meadows« (senožetior kosenice) extracted mainly from pastures was introduced. Because of the difficulties in distinguishing between them, cultivated fields and gardens were combined. Major changes in the definition of land categories were made in 1974 with the law on land cadaster (Official Gazette of the SRS, No. 16, 1974) that envisaged a new book of regulations for the cadastral 16 classification of land which appeared in 1979 (Official Gazette ofthe SRS, No. 28, 1979). This law introduced some new land categories, and others were more clearly defined. The law defines: • cultivated fields as land where field crops, berries, clover, and various plants are grown, • gardens as land where vegetables and flowers are grown using regular irrigation, • hop fields as land planted with hop, • vineyards as land planted with noble or autochthonous grapevines, • plantation orchards as land with more than 1000 m2 planted with fruit trees that are intensively cultivated using agricultural mechanization, • extensive orchards as land planted with fruit trees that do not fulfill the criteria for inclusion in the previous group, • meadows as land overgrown with grass that can be economically mown at least once a year, • swamp meadows as land on organic or mineral-organic soil overgrown with grass or horsetail, • pastures as land that due to poor growth, steep slope, rocks, or inaccessibility cannot be economically mown or can only be used for grazing livestock; they may be partly overgrown with bushes, juniper, or bramble, • marshes as land covered with reeds or other swamp vegetation that can be economically exploited, • forest plantations as land planted with rapidly growing deciduous trees intended for the production of wood, • forests as land overgrown with serried forest trees and various clearings. All these land categories are ranked among the so-called cadastral cultures (Bilancepovršin..., 1992). The land category »infertile« includes very diverse occurring forms: building sites (houses, commercial, and other buildings), courtyards, rocks, waters (rivers, streams, canals, artificial channels, lakes), transportation right-of-ways (roads, paths, railways, airports, etc.), and other unexploited land. Because their distribution is to a large extent the consequence of variations in development, they are not treated quite equally with the basic land categories. In the study, gardens and hop fields are ranked with cultivated fields, while plantation and extensive orchards are combined, as are meadows and swamp meadows and forest plantations and forests. Some categories deserve their own definition more for their appearance than for their role, which in fact they do not actually perform. Pastures are a typical example of this kind, since cattle actually graze only on a small part of their registered surface areas and village orchards in the immediate vicinity of farm houses are also intended for grazing although they are ranked among meadows, pastures, or orchards. Methodologically, the distinction between forests and pastures is still not established; within these categories there is extensive land with varied contents in the process of being overgrown (Klemenčič, 1975; Zonta, 1981). Let us mention that agricultural statistics use a slightly different definition criteria for the majority of categories (Vrišer, 1987). They do not distinguish between the two types of orchards and forests, and they separate fishponds and land intended for the natural or artificial breeding of fish. 3.3. Spatial Units The smallest surface area unit on which land use is officially recorded is a parcel (there are more than 5.5 million parcels in Slovenia). Due to this great partitioning, individual land categories are mixed, and is necessary to integrate their occurrence recorded according to parcels into spatial units of a higher level. Individual land categories thus appear in certain areas to a larger or smaller extent that can be expressed in proportions. The cadastral municipality was selected as the basic unit and in comparison with other spatial units is a relatively stable territorial unit on the level of which the land category structure has been regu- 17 larly recorded for almost two centuries, since the introduction of the Emperor Francis' cadaster. In Slovenia, there are just under 2700 cadastral municipalities, enough for the essential characteristics of land use in Slovenia to be reflected in the ratios between land categories. The calculated proportions of individual land categories show only mean values. A cadastral municipality occupies the territory of one or more neighbouring settlements with the adjoining land; as a rule, villages have been built at the juncture of several different natural units in order to suitably enable the livelihood of the owners of the land. Simultaneously, with the adaptation of cadastral measurements to changing administrative and political units, cadastral municipalities were constantly divided and their individual parts renamed. Barely had the network of cadastral municipalities been harmonized with the borders of the administrative municipalities from the 1960-1994 period after two decades of work when a new division of Slovenia into new, smaller municipalities took place; the process was far from concluded in the period when this article was written. We can only hope that additional adjustments of cadastral borders will not be required that will place new obstacles in the path of research into land use. A cadastral municipality is normally demarcated according to natural features (ridges, tops of ridges, rivers, streams) or transportation right-of-ways (roads, field paths) and includes all the natural units in a particular village's territory that with their diversity dictate a diverse land structure. Therefore, apparent absurdities appear on individual maps, for example, that cultivated fields or orchards reach far above the altitude of their actual spread (Gams, 1960), all the way to the borders of the cadastral municipalities, particularly in the alpine region and on high karst plateaus. The same applies to vineyards that in some places such as Gorjanci seemingly reach to the top of the mountains. This means that the land categories are actually even more compact on suitable land, for example, cultivated fields on the bottoms of valleys and vineyards on sunny slopes up to 500 meters in some places where their actual proportion is much larger. Cadastral municipalities belong among the basic spatial units that homogeneously cover the entire territory of Slovenia. They are an obligatory component part of the Register prostorskih enot (Register of Spatial Units) and have a reciprocal hierarchical connection with other basic units (Ažman, 1996): census and statistical units, settlements, municipalities, administrative units, and the state. Until 1995, the Register prostorskih enot (Register of Spatial Units) was called the Register teritorialnih enot (Register of Territorial Units) (Mauri, 1994), while the system based on centroids is called the Register območnih teritorialnih enot in Enotna evidenca hišnih številk (Register of Regional Territorial Units and Uniform Record of House Numbers) (Banovec, 1994). For the needs of cartographic illustration, we obtained the border lines of cadastral municipalities in digital form from the the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia. Comparative calculations for the tabular and graphical illustration of natural geographic units were made on the basis of partition, adjusted to the investigation of land use in Kladnik's study (1985). Along with the alpine, pre-alpine, mediterranean (of Primorska), dinaric (of Dolenjska and Notranjska), and (hilly) subpannonian regions, the intensively cultivated and built-up basin and flat-land regions of northeastern and eastern Slovenia are singled out. According to their type of surface, lithological structure, and climate conditions, individual cadastral municipalities are ranked in one of the seven stated natural geographic units, although classifying the indistinct transition areas between them into one or the other adjacent unit can be quite problematic. For the latest natural geographical regionalization (Land Use..., 1994; Kladnik, 1996), land use was calculated on the basis of the classification of cadastral municipalities according to mesoregions; however, their borders do not agree with the borders of the cadastral municipalities. Each cadastral municipality is classified in the mesoregion where its largest part is situated. 18 Figure 1: Natural Geographie Partition of Slovenia (Kladnik, 1985). Slikal: Naravnogeografska členitev Slovenije (Kladnik, 1985). 3.4. Calculations and Graphical Processing It is almost impossible to achieve absolute accuracy, and simplified calculations are necessary (Vrišer, 1987). Over longer time periods, mutual comparisons become ever more problematic, especially on the level of the regions of flatland, although less so for Slovenia as a whole. Fortunately, despite all the shortcomings, it is possible to see the fundamental features of the situation and the changes in land use, and methodologically, a certain degree of inaccuracy is allowed in the geographical information system (Ivacic, 1994). The basic programming tools for the data processing were IDRISI (Eastman, 1992 and 1995) and EXCEL. IDRISI is a rastered geographical information system. For all the analyses, the cell size was 100 x 100 meters. Lithological (Verbic, GAS) and climate (Ogrin, 1996) maps were first digitized and then converted into raster form. In the same way, we rastered the vector descriptions of cadastral municipality borders. In this way, we obtained data for every hectare cell in Slovenia showing in which cadastral municipality it lies and to which lithological unit and climate type it belongs. This data was easily inserted into the digital relief model. In calculating mutual links between land use and lithological structure, only those cadastral municipalities were considered of which at least two thirds of the surface area fall into a particular lithological unit. To ensure a smaller number of classes and thus greater clarity, we combined certain similar rock types. Also in studying links with climate characteristics, we combined several of Ogrin's types because of their small areas into common units so that his presentation is somewhat simplified. Thus, we have only one type of submediterranean climate, and his three subtypes of montane climate are combined into one common montane type. Because various land categories appear in individual territories, we tried to evaluate the prevailing or so-called primary use on the basis of their occurrence. The simplest possibility for a survey of this kind is offered by establishing the absolute surface prevalence of a specific land category in individual cadastral municipalities. Because of the prevailing presence of forest, the powerful dominating significance of forests is evident in the use of this method; cultivated fields, meadows, pastures, and infertile land are much less noticeable, and vineyards and orchards even less so. We get a more realistic picture of prevailing land use by using arability equivalents, coefficients that in comparison with the starting-point value of 1.0 for a cultivated field show the productivity and the necessary work intensity to master individual land categories. In our conditions, the corresponding value for meadows is 4.0, for vineyards 2.5, for orchards 1.2, for pastures 0.1, and for forests 0.15 (Gosar, 1976). The prevailing land category for individual cadastral municipalities was calculated by multiplying surface area and the coefficients. To achieve better results, unproductive land at altitudes above 1800 meters was eliminated (using the DRM), while those cadastral municipalities where more than the half of surface area is built up are presented separately. The differences between the two methods are shown in Figure 3. The most distinctive difference is in the occurrence of forests and cultivated fields. Using the method of arability equivalents, the occurrence of forests decreases considerably due to cultivated fields. There are also more meadows and proportionally more vineyards and orchards in particular. On the other hand, the occurrence of pastures and infertile areas drops due to their small role in farm life. To study the typology of the change of land use, we relied on Medved's methodology (1970). It is based on determining the changes to the surface areas of individual land categories since these change constantly, some growing while others decline. The calculations are based on the changes between 1961 and 1994; the time period was selected to reveal clearly the main consequences of rapid economic development and the consequential pronounced social restratification of the population. To carry out the typology, all the changes had to be systematically evaluated by means of generalization and arranged on the basis of the surface prevalence of individual kinds of change. In cases where most of the various land categories are being prevailingly overgrown with forest, we speak of 20 Figure 2: Prevailing Land Use according to Surface Areas of Land Categories. Slika 2: Prevladujoča raba tal po površinah zemljiških kategorij. I I fields I I vineyards I I orchards I I meadows I I pastures I I forests I I infertile Cartography: Matjaž Skobir O Gl ZRC SAZU & Institut za geografijo 80 70 H 60 50 -40 -30 20 -10 -0 um □ prevailing category by surface □ prevailing category by using arable equivalents and other corrections & <(£ <§> # <•.(?> C, .OCs OCs xCv ^ & ^ ^ .f y Ä» Figure 3: Distribution of Surface Area Proportions of Prevailing Land Use according to Two Different Approaches. Slika 3: Razporeditev površinskih deležev prevladujoče rabe tal za dva različna prikaza. »afforestation«. If the more intensive categories (cultivated fields, vineyards, orchards) are prevailingly changing into meadows, the process is called »grassing over«. If the less intensive land categories prevailingly change into more intensive categories (for example, forests into pastures, pastures into meadows, meadows into cultivated fields, orchards, or vineyards), the prevailing process is called »intensification«. If fertile land prevailingly becomes infertile due to building activity and the construction of infrastructure, the process is called »urbanization«. To establish the extent of the changes, all the established main types of change were evaluated relative to their proportions of occurrence within the entire surface of recorded changes and divided into subtypes. In cases where the proportion of change in a specific type exceeds three quarters of all the established changes, the individual main type is classified in the subtype of distinct change; if it reaches a halfto three quarters of all the changes, the subtype is strong change; however, if only the absolute prevalence of a certain main type is recorded, the subtype is weak change (in Medved, mitigated). Here, according to Medved, it is not the absolute size of the changes that is significant but merely their appearance and recording in the cadastral data. This fact was the main objection voiced by the critics of this kind of methodology. To avoid this apparent shortcoming, in the process of graphic illustration all those cadastral municipalities were classified into special classes where the proportion of the changes did not reach one percent of their entire surface area; hatching was used to show cadastral municipalities with highest intensity of the changes (the proportion of the surface area of the main type relative to the entire surface area of the cadastral municipality), and at the same time, infertile land above the tree line was eliminated from the illustration of the spread of individual types. It is understandable that the structure of the land use in a specific environment also influences the typology of changes, and it is 22 therefore necessary to attach the presented typology of changes to the occurrence of the spread of individual land categories. Despite some execution problems (generalization in the framework of diverse events within individual cadastral municipalities, inconsistent recording of changes, changes to borders and surface areas of cadastral municipalities, etc.), the established findings are extremely interesting, especially when compared to older illustrations of this type. 3.5. Survey of the Distribution of the Main Land Categories Because the proportions of individual land categories vary on the level of the entire state, we chose to illustrate them on the basis of equally large deviations from the average occurrence of specific categories, which were secured by means of indexation. The average proportion of a category has an index of 100, and relative to the deviations from the average, the indexes are ranked into seven classes; as in the eighth class cadastral municipalities where certain land categories do not exist are presented. The advantage of the methodology used lies primarily in the uniform spans of classes for all land categories allowing comparison of the illustrations. With them, mostly land areas with above-average and below-average occurrences of a specific land category are emphasized, indicating their smaller or larger role in a specific agricultural branch or in forestry. Of course, the absolute limit values of the proportions for defining the limits of the classes of individual land categories vary. They are stated in Table 1. TABLE 1: BORDER VALUES OF THE PROPORTIONS OF MAIN LAND CATEGORIES FOR DEMARCATING CLASSES ON MAPS (RELATIVE TO THE UNIFORM INDEXATION OF CLASSES). PREGLEDNICA 1: MEJNE VREDNOSTI DELEŽEV GLAVNIH ZEMLJIŠKIH KATEGORIJ ZA RAZMEJEVANJE RAZREDOV NA ZEMLJEVIDIH (GLEDE NA ENOTNO INDEKSACIJO RAZREDOV). o/ % Fields Vineyards Orchards Meadows Pastures Forests Infertile up to 50 up to 6,30 up to 0,53 up to 0,98 up to 9,05 up to 5,12 up to 24,44 up to 3,56 50,1 to 75 6,31 to 9,44 0,54 to 0,80 0,99 to 1,47 9,06 to 13,57 5,13 to 7,67 24,45 to 36,65 3,57 to 5,34 75,1 to 100 9,45 to 12,59 0,81 to 1,06 1,48 to 1,96 13,58 to 18,09 7,68 to 10,23 36,66 to 48,87 5,35 to 7,12 100,1 to 125 12,60 to 15,74 1,07 to 1,33 1,97 to 2,46 18,10 to 22,62 10,24 to 12,79 48,88 to 61,09 7,13 to 8,90 125,1 to 150 15,75 to 18,89 1,34 to 1,59 2,47 to 2,95 22,63 to 27,14 12,80 to 15,35 61,10 to 73,30 8,91 to 10,68 150,1 to 200 18,90 to 25,18 1,60 to 2,12 2,96 to 3,93 27,15 to 36,19 15,36 to 20,46 73,31 to 97,74 10,69 to 14,24 201 and more 25,19 and more 2,13 and more 3,94 and more 36,20 and more 20,47 and more 97,75 and more 14,24 and more Average 12,59 1,06 1,96 18,09 10,23 48,87 7,12 To illustrate the values of the presented method (used for maps 22-28), comparative cartographic analyses were performed. Certain typical land categories were selected (cultivated fields, vineyards, and forests) for which cartographic illustrations were executed in two ways: • with an adjusted scale in each category with equal spans between the classes (5% for cultivated fields, 2% for vineyards, and 10% for the forests), through which we tried to show the main lines of distribution of individual categories; • with a uniform scale with various spans between the classes, through which we tried to ensure better comparison between individual categories. The differences between the methods used are immediately evident in the graphical illustration of the selected categories. The comparison of the results of all three methods for all three categories is also graphically illustrated. It is based upon surface occurrence of the proportions of all the classes in the various presentations. The course of the curve in the graphs indicates the distribution of individual classes on the maps. 23 Figure 4: Proportion of Cultivated Fields in 1994 (adjusted scale). Slika 4: Delež njiv leta 1994 (prilagojena lestvica). I I without fields I I up to 5% I I 5.00 to 9.99% I I 10.00 to 14.99% I I 15.00 to 19.99% I I 20.00 to 24.99% I I 25.00 to 29.99% 30.00% more than Cartography: Matjaž Skobir © Gl ZRC SAZU & Institut za geografijo Figure 5: Proportion of Cultivated Fields in 1994 (uniform scale). Slika 5: Delež njiv leta 1994 (enotna lestvica). □ without fields □ up to 2.00% □ 2.00 to 4.99% □ 5.00 to 9.99% □ 10.00 to 14.99% □ 15.00 to 24.99% □ 25.00 to 49.99% ■ 50.00% and more Cartography: Matjaž Skobir Figure 6: Proportion of Vineyards in 1994 (adjusted scale) Slika 6: Delež vinogradov leta 1994 (prilagojena lestvica). □ without vineyards □ up to 2.00% □ 2.00 to 3.99% □ 4.00 to 5.99% □ 6.00 to 7.99% □ 8.00 to 9.99% □ 10.00 to 11.99% ■ 12.00% and more Cartography: Matjaž Skobir Figure 7: Proportion of Vineyards in 1994 (uniform scale). Slika 7: Delež vinogradov leta 1994 (enotna lestvica). □ without vineyards □ up to 2.00% n 2.00 to 4.99% □ 5.00 to 9.99% □ 10.00 to 14.99% □ 15.00 to 24.99% □ 25.00 to 49.99% ■ 50.00% and more Cartography: Matjaž Skobir Figure 8: Proportion of Forests in 1994 (adjusted scale). Slika 8: Delež gozdov leta 1994 (prilagojena lestvica). groups Figure 10: Distribution of Surface Proportions according to Classes for Different Presentations of the Distribution of Cultivated Fields. Slika 10: Razporeditev površinskih deležev po razredih za različne prikaze razprostranjenosti njiv. groups Figure 11: Distribution of Surface Proportions according to Classes for Different Presentations of the Distribution of Vineyards. Slika 11: Razporeditev površinskih deležev po razredih za različne prikaze razprostranjenosti vinogradov. 30 60 adapted scale CD p e CT ta 20 40 30 50 10 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 groups Figure 12: Distribution of Surface Proportions according to Classes for Different Presentations of the Distribution of Forests. Slika 12: Razporeditev površinskih deležev po razredih za različne prikaze razprostranjenosti gozdov. Although the uniform scale which presents proportionate distributions of surface proportions of cultivated fields is seemingly more useful than the scale based on averages because it approaches the normal frequency distribution, in the context of the simplified presentation of all land categories this kind of assessment loses a part of its value. Even more so when we compare the results of distribution for vineyards and forests where the curves derived from the averages differ fundamentally from the two other methods of presentation. For forests, it comes close to the normal frequency distribution. On all the maps made on the basis of averages, areas of above-average occurrence and the corresponding above-average economic significance of a particular land category can be clearly seen. Thus it is possible to ascribe to them the principle of universality, and they can be a good foundation for further studies, even for eventual territorial partitions. Current land use in Slovenia is the consequence of rapid postwar development characterized by quite widely dispersed industrialization that stimulated urbanization. Both processes caused a flight from the land and deagrarianization. Specialization in crop production and market-oriented farming appeared (Gabrovec, Kladnik, Material for the Geographical Atlas of Slovenia). Modernization of production techniques and the widespread introduction of agricultural mechanization brought about the extensive giving up of the then prevalent self-sufficient nature of farming usable land where the use of machinery was either not possible or at least not economical. As a result of politically stimulated campaigns that tried to increase the level of self-sufficiency relative to some important crops such as wheat and sugar beet, the orientation of crop production changed 4. Basic Characteristics of Land Use 31 in various periods as well. With nationalization and the agrarian reforms following World War II (Kladnik, 1990 a), considerable strength was gained by the social sector, which is after slovenian inde-pendene partly changed in agricultural companies. The independent use of land organized in larger consolidated parcels is typical of such companies. In the period of socialist transformation, they were universally supported by the political elite and therefore almost always had sufficient financial means to change production directions and consequently the ratios between land categories, when necessary by means of major interventions. They also acquired the most qualitative farm land through amelioration and consolidation (Kert, 1979). Along with ecological criticisms (for example, Marjeta Natek, 1990), protests regarding the economics of implementing various amelioration projects became increasingly louder due to their high costs (Kranjec, 1989). It is possible to indirectly and gradually influence land use through the system of land ownership structure as well as through the most varied land policy instruments (Erjavec, 1994). Policies in the recent past were anything but encouraging to agriculture with their obstructive character, most clearly reflected in the policy limiting the maximum amount of land a farmer could own (Gliha, 1987). According to the sources of information, the data on land use differs and does not reflect actual use in a certain time period. The differences between the data from the Surveying and Mapping Authority and figures from the Statistics Office are becoming smaller but are still evident. In 1994, for example, according to the second source there were 639,700 hectares of cultivated land and 790,700hectares of agricultural land in Slovenia (StatisticsAnnual), and according to the first source (Bilancepovršin...), 683,100 hectares and 891,800 hectares respectively. Some more detailed studies showed that the discrepancy between the actual and the official situation is as much as 20% and more of the entire surface area of a specific territory (Kladnik, 1985; Vrišer 1987). For a long time, this discrepancy concealed the substantially greater occurrence of the more extensive land categories and lately in some places, the irregular following of the change from less intensive categories to more intensive categories. 1000000 800000 600000 400000 200000 - JP J> xs- r 0 Figure 13: Surface Area of Cadastral Land Categories in Slovenia in 1991 (in hectares) Slika 13: Površina katastrskih zemljiških kategorij v Sloveniji leta 1991 (v ha). 32 Figure 14: Proportions of Former Social Sector according to Land Categories in Slovenia in 1991. Slika 14: Deleži nekdanjega družbenega sektorja po zemljiških kategorijah v Sloveniji leta 1991. Forests comprise the strongly dominant land category. According to estimates, forests already cover more than half of the country, while almost 100,000 hectares or a good 10% of all the available agricultural land is in the phase of overgrowing. Two thirds of this is pasture, one quarter is meadow, and remainder falls into intensive land categories (Strategija razvoja...). Estimates have even appeared in the newspapers that about 300,000 hectares of agricultural land is in the process of overgrowing (Delo, September 1997). Occurring forms of the various phases of forest overgrowth have been studied by Marijan Klemencic (1975 and 1978). According to cadastral data, there are only a good six square kilometers of forest plantations. Among cadastral cultures according to surface area, forests are followed by meadows, cultivated fields, and pastures, while among the non-standard categories, swamp meadows cover the largest area (91.6 km2). Plantation orchards, hop fields, and marsh cover more than ten square kilometers. Orchards (extensive and plantation) cover 2%, vineyards 1.1%, and unproductive surface areas (infertile, building land, transportation right-of-ways, and water) 7%. In the last category, the surface area of building land (427km2) still lags behind other forms (969.4km2) in spite of its rapid growth (Bilance površin...). The majority of land remained in private hands in spite of the pressures for nationalization and socialization following World War II. A good third (33.5%) of all land but only 16.4% of cultivable land gradually passed to the social sector (Bilancepovršin...). Because of the considerable occurrence of pastures, the proportion of state-owned agricultural land was 21.4% while the proportion of fertile land was substantially higher (29.9%), influenced by an even larger proportion of forests. Above-average socialization occurred with categories of unproductive land, fertile land, forest plantations (at 96.4%, the forests were the most nationalized category overall), plantation orchards, and hop fields. All three intensive categories were to a prevailing degree placed in the social sector. 33 Following the independence of Slovenia, the state became the owner of the majority of social land on the basis of various laws (Lukacic, 1997). Some 560,000 hectares were passed to the Fund of agricultural land and forests that manages the property. Its basic tasks are to implement the traffic in agricultural land, farms, and forests and to lease them or grant concessions for their economic exploitation. The main problem in carrying out these tasks is the insufficient cadastral evidence of formal state ownership (Lukacic, 1994). Figure 15: Changing of the Proportions of Land Categories in Slovenia between 1896 and 1994. Slika 15: Spreminjanje deležev zemljiških kategorij v Sloveniji v obdobju 1896-1994. The ratios between land categories change constantly. The data are relatively reliable for the period of the last century, but, unfortunately, the definitions of categories have changed. Still, it is clear that the occurrence of pastures and cultivated fields have diminished most while the proportions of forests (mostly due to pastures), meadows (mostly due to cultivated fields), and infertile areas (due to building on fertile land) have increased. It is obvious that more radical changes have occurred in the last thirty years than in the entire previous period. TABLE 2: CHANGING OF THE PROPORTIONS OF LAND CATEGORIES IN SLOVENIA IN THE PERIOD 1896-1994. PREGLEDNICA 2: SPREMINJANJE DELEŽEV ZEMLJIŠKIH KATEGORIJ V SLOVENIJI V OBDOBJU 1896-1994. Year Fields Vineyards Orchards Medows Pastures Forests Infertile 1896 18,1 1,0 - 15,9 17,0 41,6 5,5 1961 15,5 1,2 1,7 17,9 14,1 43,9 5,7 1979 13,2 1,1 2,0 18,9 11,1 47,3 6,4 1994 12,6 1,1 2,0 18,1 10,2 48,9 7,1 Sources: Gospodarska in družbena zgodovina Slovencev, Zgodovina agrarnih panog, 1. Zvezek. Kladnik, D.: Problematika zemljiške strukture v Sloveniji, Elaborat. Land cadaster data on land categories according to cadastral municipalities for 1994, Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia. 34 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% t—-—r ^ # ^ ^ .Z # # # # # # <# # # .. .. _<>$> ..<>$> □ infertile □ forests □ pastures □ meadows □ orchards □ vineyards „ cultivated fields ' and gardens Figure 16: Land Categories according to Natural Geographic Units of Slovenia in 1994. Slika 16: Zemljiške kategorije po naravnogeografskih enotah Slovenije leta 1994. There are significant differences in land use among individual natural geographic units. They can be ascribed primarily to natural factors although the role of social and economic circumstances can not be ignored, which is confirmed by the findings in the continuation of the article. TABLE 3: LAND CATEGORIES ACCORDING TO NATURAL GEOGRAPHIC UNITS OF SLOVENIA IN 1994. PREGLEDNICA 3: ZEMLJIŠKE KATEGORIJE PO NARAVNOPOKRAJINSKIH ENOTAH SLOVENIJE LETA 1994. Fields Vineyards Orchards Meadows Pastures Forests Infertile Alpine Region 2,6 0,0 0,4 9,7 15,3 56,5 15,5 Pre-alpine Region 8,7 0,3 1,6 16,4 7,8 60,7 4,5 Mediterranean Region 10,6 3,7 1,4 21,7 24,3 31,8 6,5 Dinaric Region 7,7 0,5 0,7 14,7 10,2 57,3 8,9 Subpannonian Region 20,7 3,3 5,6 20,4 7,7 36,7 5,6 Basins 23,3 0,1 3,0 25,1 3,3 32,3 12,9 Plains of NE and E Slovenia 40,6 0,7 2,2 21,1 3,2 20,2 12,0 Slovenia 12,6 1,1 2,0 18,1 10,2 48,9 7,1 Sources: Land cadaster data on land categories according to cadastral municipalities for 1994, Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia. Kladnik, D.: Problematika zemljiške strukture v Sloveniji, Elaborat. By far the most cultivated fields are found on the gravel and clay plains of northeastern and eastern Slovenia. Vineyards occur at above-average levels in the mediterranean region and in the hilly margin of the subpannonian flatland but in calculations are recorded beyond the hills as well since the cadastral municipalities include two relief categories (plain and hills). Orchards are best represented in hilly subpannonian Slovenia but also quite frequently in the Ljubljana and Celje basins. There 35 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 □ alpine region □ prealpine region □ mediterranean region □ dinaric region □ subpanonian region □ basins □ flatlands in NE and E Slovenia □ total Figure 17: Changes of Surface Areas (Coefficients) of Land Categories between 1961 and 1994 according to Natural Geographic Units of Slovenia. Slika 17: Spremembe površin (koeficienti) zemljiških kategorij med letoma 1961 in 1994 po naravnogeografskih enotah Slovenije. are more meadows in the east than in the west of the country, and the majority of the pastures are in the coastal region and in the high mountains of the alpine region where they extend beyond the upper tree line. The largest areas of forest are in the pre-alpine region, but they also cover more than half of the territory in the alpine region and in the dinaric region of Notranjska and Dolenjska. That the greatest occurrence of infertile surface is in the alpine region is due to the rockiness above the upper tree line; however, its occurrence in the two basins and the plains in the east and northeast of the country almost achieve the same number. This large proportion is everywhere the consequence of the rapid building on formerly fertile surfaces. The surface area of cultivated fields declined most in the alpine region and least in the plains of northeastern and eastern Slovenia. The surface area of vineyards also declined in all the natural geographic units, by far the most in the alpine region (in the Tolmin area), where the conditions for the growth of grapevine are extremely unfavourable, and the least in the dinaric region. In contrast, the surface area of orchards increased everywhere, most of all in the mediterranean region. 36 Cartography: Matjaž Skobir O Gl ZRC SAZU & Inštitut za geografijo I I fields I I vineyards I I orchards I I meadows I I pastures I I forests I I infertile - mesoregional border Due to the effects of two contradictory processes, changes to the surface area of meadows are apparently statistically negligible (the largest growth is recorded in the subpannonian hills and the largest decline in the alpine region), while pastures declined everywhere, most distinctly in the plains of northeastern and eastern Slovenia and in the dinaric region of Dolenjska and in Notranjska, and least in the mediterranean region. Forests spread everywhere, except in the area of the Ljubljana and Celje basins where they even declined slightly. They grew most distinctly in the predominantly karst regions of Dolenjska and Notranjska. Infertile surface areas increased everywhere, only symbolically in the alpine region, by more than a third in the pre-alpine and subpannonian regions, by more than a half in the plains of northeastern and eastern Slovenia, and by more than two thirds in the two large basins. TABLE 4: CHANGES OF SURFACE AREAS (COEFFICIENTS) OF LAND CATEGORIES BETWEEN 1961 AND 1994 ACCORDING TO NATURAL GEOGRAPHIC UNITS OF SLOVENIA. PREGLEDNICA 4: SPREMEMBE POVRŠIN (KOEFICIENTI) ZEMLJIŠKIH KATEGORIJ MED LETOMA 1961 IN 1994 PO NARAVNOPOKRAJINSKIH ENOTAH SLOVENIJE. Fields Vineyards Orchards Meadows Pastures Forests Marshes Infertile Alpine Region 0,68 0,21 1,20 0,93 0,79 1,10 1,00 1,01 Pre-alpine Region 0,73 0,73 1,27 1,05 0,70 1,10 0,35 1,37 Mediterranean Region 0,82 0,93 1,31 1,01 0,86 1,17 0,40 1,28 Dinaric Region 0,77 0,94 1,03 0,96 0,62 1,18 0,84 1,28 Subpannonian Region 0,85 0,86 1,18 1,10 0,78 1,05 0,80 1,43 Basins 0,79 0,66 1,01 1,02 0,71 0,99 0,79 1,69 Plains of NE and E Slovenia 0,94 0,91 1,05 0,99 0,59 1,02 1,27 1,61 Slovenia 0,82 0,88 1,16 1,01 0,73 1,11 0,83 1,26 Sources: Land cadaster data on land categories according to cadastral municipalities for 1994, Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia. Kladnik, D.: Problematika zemljiške strukture v Sloveniji, Elaborat. Land use is shown in even more detail in the map of Slovene mesoregions (Figure 18) where mainly the mesoregions with the largest and the smallest proportions of specific land categories appear. The largest proportion of cultivated fields is in Murska ravan (the Mura Plain) (47.8%) and the smallest in Zahodne Karavanke (the Western Karavanke Mountains) (1.4%). Less than two percent of cultivated fields are still found in Julijske Alpe (the Julian Alps) and on Javorniki and Snežnik (the Javorniki and Snežnik Mountains), but they cover more than a third of the surface area in Dravska ravan (the Drava plain) and in Lendavske gorice (the Lendava Hills). The largest proportion of vineyards in found in Goriška brda (the Gorica Hills) (17.6%), and they cover more than a tenth of the surface area in Lendavske gorice. In numerous mesoregions, grapevines do not grow. In contrast, orchards are found in all regions, the most in Slovenske gorice (the Slovenian Hills) (10.6%) while they cover only one tenth of a percent in Julijske Alpe, Podgorski kras (the Podgorje Karst Region), Ćićarija, Podgrajsko podolje (the Podgrad Valley System), and on Javorniki and Snežnik. Meadows only cover more than a half of the surface area in Ljubljansko barje (the Ljubljana Moor). They take up the least surface area, less than one tenth of the land, in Zahodne Karavanke and Kamniško-Savinjske Alpe (the Kamnik-Savinja Alps). By far the most pastures are found in Podgorski kras, Ćićarija, and Podgrajsko podolje (41.5%). They also cover almost one third of the surface area in Kras (the Karst Region), while in the alpine region they are most extensive in the Julijske Alpe (18.5%). Pastures cover less than two percent of Murska ravan, Lendavske gorice, Goricko, and Velikolašcanska pokrajina (the Velike Lašce Area), and less than one percent of Ljubljansko barje. Forests cover more than two thirds of the surface area in Vzhodne Karavanke (the Eastern Karavanke Mountains), Stojna, Kozjak and Pohorje (the Stojna, Kozjak and Pohorje Mountain Ranges), the high karst plateaus of Trnovski gozd, Nanos, Hrušica, Javorniki, and Snežnik. They have declined most on the Savinjska (the Savinja Plain), Murska, and Dravska ravan where they occupy less than one fifth of the surface area. Only in Julijske Alpe is there more than 20% of infertile land while on the Dravska and Savska 38 ravan (the Sava Plain), the proportion exceeds 15%. Infertile land occurs least in Kočevsko (the Kočevje Region), where in the mountains of Velika Gora, Stojna, Goteniška gora, Mala gora, Kočevski rog, and Poljanska gora the proportion does not reach 2%. 5. Land Use Dependent on Selected Natural Factors 5.1. Lithology 100% ■ infertile □ marshes ■ forests □ pastures □ meadows □ orchards ■ vineyards cultivated fields □ and gardens fS * S S S * v# S» r ^ # ^ / v ^