The article addresses the concept of landscape identity considered from a new perspective - a perspective of five fundamental human senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Landscape identity is mostly understood as a phenomenon based on its distinguishable visual characteristics. However, human environment is a multisensory medium, rich in information from all fields of perception. Equally, a man is a multisensory being and experiences his environment with multiple senses. The underlying assumption is that human identification with places does not only arise from the interaction with their visual, but also with their auditory, olfactory, tactile, and even gustatory properties. As a research area, the Dalmatia region in Croatia has been chosen. By the content analysis method, applied on samples of lyric poems and promotional (mostly tourist) materials, the aim was to examine what features, visual and non-visual, the social conception of Dalmatian landscape is based on. The results show that landscape identity of Dalmatia, in terms of sensory perception, is rather diverse. Understanding landscape identity as a sensory multidimensional phenomenon opens many new questions and possibilities in the field of landscape theory and practice.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7656057
The implementation of Natura 2000 is causing difficulties in the EU’s Member States, including Slovenia. In addition to the positive environmental it also results in the negative economic, social, and governance-administrative effects. To prevent similar quandaries in adopting and implementing EU policies, the project ESPON EATIA developed a participatory process for the territorial impact assessment. The Habitat Directive has the positive effects regarding the conservation of biodiversity, but the directive represents a major obstacle for the economy and the delivery of investments. At the same time it enlarges the potential of the area for tourism and opportunity for the development of new industries. The regulation contributes to a better quality of life, but also extends the spatial planning procedures and conflicts between investors and the local community. This approach has proven to be an appropriate medium for the exchange of experiences of various stakeholders who are involved in either the preparation or the implementation of the rules and as the proper tool for the global assessment of the effects of selected EU regulation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35778605
This paper examines the problem of new collective housing complexes built in Ljubljana after the transition period. In comparison to the older residential estates, they demonstrate a much higher building density, and lower quality and quantity of adjacent open spaces. The research focuses on the problem of quality of living in these areas, since green areas are essential for increasing life quality of all residents, especially children and the elderly, who depend on the proximity of well-designed open spaces in their living surroundings. These findings are challenged by the contemporary urban development paradigms, requiring urban renewal, densification and “inner development” often to the cost of open space. Our research explores how size and equipment of open spaces influence the ways in which they are used. The paper presents results of two methods; the qualitative and quantitative analyses of open space design in residential estates, performed by evaluating selected urban design indicators, and an experimental method of observations and behavioral mapping in open spaces within a selected residential estates. The results have confirmed that low quality of open space and poor use are correlated and also gathered empirical evidence for low quality of new areas as compared to older ones and existing urban standards.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7656569
Chapter, published in the monograph on capacity focuses on the specifics of the capacity building in old industrialised regions which were marked by the ongoing structural economic change. The damage, these regions are coping with, is considerable large: the closure of the mining and downsizing of the related industries had led to deindustrialization, high unemployment and outmigration in affected areas. Authors argue that creating a new development path for such regions is a complex and challenging task, since academic and political debates on structural change in old industrialised regions have lost their influence, despite the persistence of concomitant problems. The chapter focuses on how actors in the regions under investigation build capacities for regional development. The empirical basis for research is provided by two central European mining regions: Zwickau-Lugau-Oelsnitz in Germany and the Central Sava Valley (Sln. Zasavje) in Slovenia. Drawing from these case studies, important elements of capacity-building in unfavourable framework conditions are discussed, together with the opportunities and limitations of such efforts.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2524611
The articles derives from the research about potential socio-economic and landscape changes EU accession would bring for Slovenia as perceived by the local population in the selected region. The author analyzed which of the predicted changes have been also mirrored in the landscape and how removing the borders improved not just the quality but also the perception of the landscape. Special attention was given to the joined cross-border initiatives which aim at improving the local and regional economic conditions, advancing the agricultural practice and better environment in the region. On one hand, the accession has been along with the opportunities EU initiatives offer accepted as the positive change in the region, on the other it has requested several, sometimes unwanted adaptations in the local communities in order to comply with the EU policies and legislation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7625081