FABRICA

THE “PEOPLE” FOLDER

The population and settlement structure of the region discussed in southwest Slovenia was primarily influenced by natural conditions and its geopolitical location and transportation connections. Population is one of the most important cultural landscape elements because it changes most rapidly and has a strong impact on landscape changes. A period of stagnation with occasional minor increase in population was interrupted by both world wars and the related events. In the western part of the region, stagnation has only ceased in the last decades, whereas it continues to be typical of most of the eastern part. Taking a closer look, considerable differences can be observed between individual areas; these are primarily connected with transport accessibility, the vicinity of places of employment, cross-border communication, adequate housing conditions, and opportunities to cultivate land. The study of settlement features focuses on settlements and their structure, and also discusses traditional rural houses. The predominantly clustered villages, which usually make good use of southern, leeward, and strategically favorable locations, become increasingly rarer towards the east. Recently, the Karst and the Vipava Valley as well as the attractive Ljubljana countryside, which reaches far into the Inner Carniolan lowland, have attracted settlement, which is connected with radical spatial changes. The former rural settlements are turning into residential areas with a predominantly non-rural population, and permanent places of residence are changing into vacation houses. Greater migration dynamics are typical of those settlements where new houses can be built outside the built-up village center. Except for areas along major roads, the eastern part of the region discussed is still characterized by depopulation; in areas with the most unfavorable conditions, depopulation is also accompanied by the decay of the traditional cultural landscape. Preserving the typical landscape image, which is the trademark of the Karst, the Vipava Valley, and the Inner Carniolan and Pivka lowlands as well as small parts of other regions included in the project, must be based on supervised population development and cultural landscape maintenance, which is a precondition and, at the same time, a challenge for prudent sustainable planning.
The following topics were addressed as part of the work package:

• Settlement, population distribution, and population changes;
• Vital statistics of the population with an emphasis on birthrate, mortality rate, and rate of natural increase;
• The population’s age and gender composition;
• The population’s ethnic, linguistic, and religious composition;
• Socioeconomic characteristics of the population with an emphasis on active work force, employment and unemployment rates, and education;
• The population’s commuting and relocation dynamics; Families and households;
• Settlement distribution and characteristics of the settlement system; Urbanization and suburbanization;
• Housing with an emphasis on the size, age, and heating method;
• Regional development with an emphasis on human resources.

Population changes from 1991 to 2002. (figure in high resolution)

An elderly woman from the Karst tying grapevines. Matevž Lenarčič

Sežana is the economic, transport, educational, scientific, and cultural capital of the Slovenian Karst and one of the most rapidly growing towns in this area. Matevž Lenarčič

THE “LAND USE” FOLDER

This work package focuses on the land use of the karst and flysch regions studied. In geography, the term “land use” refers to people’s activity in a specific region in the broadest sense possible, in which it must be taken into account that it is largely adapted to natural conditions. By studying the relationships between individual land categories (i.e., arable land, orchards, vineyards, grassland [pastures and meadows], forests, built-up areas, and so on), we can establish how favorable the natural conditions are for agriculture and settlement, as well as the predominant agricultural activity, and the general features of the social and economic development in a specific region. The area studied is characterized by a great predominance of forest, which covers 70% of the entire area, whereas only 25% of the land is agricultural. Compared to the rest of Slovenia, the forest cover is one-sixth greater and the agricultural land cover is smaller by nearly half. There are considerable differences in land use within the area studied, which is why it can be described as a geographically heterogeneous area. Perhaps the most obvious is the fairly sharp boundary of vineyards, which are limited to the Karst and the Vipava Valley. Because of this and the presence of other arable land categories, these two regions have a below-average share of forests within the area studied; in other regions, this share is usually above average. The changes in land use reveal even more about the landscape processes. In the first half of the nineteenth century, when agricultural land predominated in Slovenia, forest covered only one-third of this area. However, even then the Trnovo Forest, the Nanos Plateau, Hrušica Hill, the Javornik Hills, Mt. Snežnik, and the Menišija Plateau stood out in terms of forest density. At that time, meadows and pastures primarily predominated in the Karst and the Pivka lowlands.
This work package highlighted the following basic research questions:

• What were the relationships between the basic land-use categories in the area studied (i.e., arable land, orchards, vineyards, grassland, forests, built-up areas, etc.) like in the past and what are these like today?
• What kind of land-use changes (e.g., afforestation, greening, intensification, urbanization) have taken place and how intensely (i.e., strong, moderate, weak)?
• Where are land-use changes the most and least pronounced? This makes it possible to determine the quality of cultural landscape structures (i.e., natural, traditional, historical, and modern).
• How can the main findings be used in the spatial planning of this area and guiding life within it?

Land use in 2002. (figure in high resolution)

Periodic floded bottom of Planinsko polje is suitable only for pastures. Matevž Lenarčič.

Women and children had very important role in afforestation of karst

Land use around Križ-Šepulje in 2005. (figure in high resolution)