This chapter addresses spatial statistics via an alternative perspective, focusing on evidence-based people-spatial relationships and related measures, quantifications and qualifications, and by this, it provides rather specific spatial information and spatial statistics about urban environments. It is based on time quality assessment (TQA), a time-people-place-oriented approach for the analysis and simulation of the quality of living environments, back-grounded with the method of behaviour mapping. It shows that the quality of the time spent on a certain activity in a certain place indicates the quality of the living environment. It also shows that the quality of the time spent depends on what a person can afford, and it provides an evaluation of the quality of living environments with a measure of good/bad time. The practical value is in the provision of empirical knowledge to support planning guidance based on user-centred small-scale spatial statistics, which is able to inform top-down and bottom-up decision-making processes for people friendly living environments.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2781635
This paper addresses urban open spaces, their uses and users. It is concerned with spatial relationships between usage and the physical structure of open spaces in city centres, and addresses the social dimension of green infrastructures in cities and towns. On the basis of behaviour mapping, it reveals dynamic patterns of place occupancies as informative knowledge for responsive and inclusive design. The paper discusses the uses mapped in parks in two European cities (Ljubljana, Slovenia; Edinburgh, UK) under repeated observation on different days, at different times and under different weather conditions. It shows that occupancy patterns have some spatial logic and that in development, planning and design it is essential to pay more attention to the spatiality of uses, compatibility of uses in places, and comprehensive usage-spatial relationships to produce well used and people-friendly places. The paper is concerned with the practical aspects of the conduciveness of places to use and public responsiveness, and examines how different kinds of spatial structure facilitate use by different publics in different ways; and the extent to which such knowledge and awareness can inform design and decision-making.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2750659
The private rented sector (PRS) in Slovenia has operated since the end of the Second World War without being officially recognised and supported by government policy. This article explores why the responsible state institutions have persistently ignored this sector. The discussion starts with a brief review of the development of the country’s housing policy, which has been deeply entrenched in the “enabling approach” philosophy since the major housing reforms were introduced in the early 1990s. With the help of the findings of a survey conducted among the key state institutions responsible for housing care, the role of the state is examined in the development of the private rented sector since a market economy system was adopted in Slovenia in 1991. Although the responses received from the survey show that the state institutions investigated are generally aware of all the shortcomings of the current PRS, they have made no serious attempt to support its development. A suggestion is therefore made in the conclusion that the failure to introduce the measures necessary to support the development and formal operation of the PRS may be attributed to unfavourable attitudes of policymakers toward the sector.
COBISS.SI-ID: 288302080
The Slovenian population is aging. In order to best adapt to this demographic change, it is necessary to face this issue and to study it from the perspective of various disciplines, including geography. This article therefore especially focuses on the spatial characteristics of population aging in Slovenia in addition to general characteristics. The findingsshow that population aging in Slovenia is not uniform; instead, there are large differences in population aging in Slovenia. In addition to general social processessuch asfalling birthrates and increasing life expectancy, these are primarily the result ofspatial movement of the population. The conclusion presents some consequences that will arise in Slovenian territory and society in the future due to population aging.
COBISS.SI-ID: 38629421
In this paper, it is argued that after decades of a strong dominance of the notion of housing affordability in the housing provision discourse in Western European countries, there is a need to depart from this notion and shift the emphasis to housing accessibility. Our main argument is that affordability does not necessarily guarantee accessibility for all. Starting with a review of the recent housing policy changes across Europe, the central part of the paper focuses on the discussion about the characteristics and inappropriateness of the concept of affordability and the introduction of the concept of housing accessibility. In the last part of the paper, we build on the notions of ‘merit good’ and ‘right to housing’ as the theoretical bases for proposing the introduction of a universal housing care system, along the principles of the universal health care system successfully practiced in many developed countries.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2592195
This paper is based on research carried out in an EU Framework project, concerning the better integration of mobility management (MM) with land use planning. The objective of the paper is to analyse how, and how far, policies in this field of action can transfer from one member state to another, and to compare this to the theory of policy transfer put forward by Dolowitz and Marsh (2000), using their theory as an analytical framework, but also informing that theory. After providing a definition of this form of integration, the paper explains how far MM and land use planning are currently integrated in the EU member and other states covered in the research (Sweden, Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, the UK, as well as Ireland and the Netherlands). It then presents the results of planning simulation workshops in five of these countries, where a group of planning professionals from each state considered real development sites and how MM could be integrated with the development. It shows that there is scope for transfer but concludes that barriers such as language, differing planning traditions, and the problem of transferring a new policy idea within a country will limit the scope of policy transfer significantly. Nonetheless, it sees a role for EU projects of this nature in encouraging initial consideration of new policy ideas.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2402243
Scientific monograph deals with the actual developmental dynamics in the Alpine region which causes many spatial, transportation and environmental problems such as: extensions of peri-urban areas, splitting of the territory, lowering quality of transport services and enormous increase of private traffic with negative consequences for the environment, reduced profitability of transport services, accessibility constraints for population groups which depend on public transport, high mobility costs for private households and vulnerability of real estate values in case of heavily rising energy costs for mobility. It discusses the way the households and the other actors make decisions about new residential sites and consequently transport modes and confirms the assumption that they generally do not consider all relevant objective information, particularly those pertaining to long-term costs of housing and mobility. The monograph discusses the role of motivations as well as other factors such as quality of life, values, beliefs, norms, lifestyles and housing preferences which have a significant impact on long-term conscious decisions taken by the actors.
COBISS.SI-ID: 271187712
A critical overview of current protection legislation in Slovenia has been prepared, with particular reference to karst areas (surface, caves, groundwater). The major problem is a lack of harmonised multi-sector policies regulating land use and planning throughout the karst region, the absence of detailed guidelines and insufficient pursuance of karst in all its complexity and vulnerability. A comprehensive management approach for karst areas has been proposed and could subsequently be adopted by other karst-rich countries.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2658243
Landscape scenarios are a well-recognized and often applied tool in landscape and spatial planning. Their frequent use raises the question of how the use of the scenario influences the attitudes and actions of the individual stakeholders in the landscape. The study was performed in the area of two rural communities in western Slovenia and focused on two groups of stakeholders, farmers and decision-makers, because these groups have the ability to directly or indirectly impose landscape changes. The farmers were separated into a test and control group and participated in an experiment that included a scenario experience different for the test and control group and ended with a survey interview. Decision-makers participated in a two-round Delphi study, which also involved a scenario exercise. Overall, the results confirmed that landscape scenarios influence attitudes associated with the landscape. The impact on actions was only partially confirmed, as many external factors that might also influence future actions could not be excluded, such as personal characteristics, professional occupation or the characteristics of the farm. The study provides implications for further research, such as the magnitude of scenario impact and the interaction of scenario use with other factors which might affect the formation of and changes in attitudes and actions associated with landscape.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2642627
Public participation is a form of public cooperation or participation in the spatial planning process that enables subjects or groups to express views, give initiatives, and actively take part in such proceedings. Because public participation is often limited to giving remarks on finished spatial plans, it is assumed that public participation could be improved with the help of information technology: namely, new web tools. One innovation is Web 2.0, a concept introduced in 2004. This introduced many tools into the world wide web that are useful in social networks and various web services as participatory services with a huge number of users. This article analyses opportunities for interaction between public participation and Web 2.0. It presents the demands of public participation and Web 2.0 and their opportunities for enabling participation in spatial planning. The article ascertains that Web 2.0 tools are very useful in including the public in spatial-planning processes but that much preparatory work and a good technical platform are necessary.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2470083