Rivers are natural geographical dividers whose shifting courses hamper permanent administrative demarcation, especially in flat areas exposed to frequent flooding. After Slovenia’s independence in 1991, the former Yugoslav-internal (i.e., less important) border between Slovenia and Croatia became an important international border, over two-fifths of which follows rivers (the Drava, Sotla, Kolpa, Dragonja, and others). Historical maps (the Josephinian military map and the Franciscan land register), modern cartography, and precise digital relief models were used to analyze the dynamics of changing river courses for several Slovenian border rivers that differ in their flow regime and hydrogeography, and maps were created showing the changes in these watercourses during the past two centuries. In line with time analysis of shifting courses, limitations are highlighted for defining borders on rivers, which have their origin in natural geographical conditions that often remain overlooked in political decision-making. Even though changes in small watercourses are less distinct, under exceptional circumstances (such as flooding) their courses can also change. It is precisely because of these shifts in their courses that rivers, especially in flat areas, are not the most suitable choices for political demarcation.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 41468973Political borders rely as much as possible on natural borders, especially those created by mountains and rivers. Even though a river in the sense of a watercourse is a natural feature, a border river primarily becomes a social fact when it acquires a demarcating function. As in Slovenia, this applies ‒ sometimes even more distinctly ‒ to rivers throughout the world and in Europe, where this phenomenon has already been systematically studied. This article systematically reviews border rivers for the entire planet, individual continents, and individual countries, highlighting those where the share of river borders is the greatest in relation to the total length of the country’s borders. Border rivers are analyzed with regard to their dimensions, degree of artificial transformation, and important geographical features along and on them, such as major towns, bridges, hydroelectric plants, reservoirs, and river ports. They are categorized with regard to the size of the country, basic natural features (upper, middle, and lower flow), climate zones, and density of settlement along them. The current and historically best-known border disputes along rivers throughout the world are also examined, in which a border river may have only been the scene of events or the object in an international dispute that led to armed conflict.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 41469229On 17 June 2017, the central Slovenian newspaper Delo carried out a notable interview with Marko Zajc on the historical circumstances of the arbitration on the Slovenian-Croatian border.
F.29 Contribution to the development of national cultural identity
COBISS.SI-ID: 3801716People conceptualize various natural borders in very different ways. Their relationship to these borders can be determined through the use of cognitive maps. These are a kind of mental image of regions that individuals draw in their minds and then transfer to paper, thereby producing cognitive maps. This study investigated the symbolic power of rivers as borders using the delimitation of Slovenian regions. The results are based on an analysis of about six hundred cognitive maps produced by respondents from across Slovenia. The respondents were selected based on random sampling. The maps, which they drew manually, were scanned and digitized into vector format. This yielded four thousand polygons that were converted to raster format; various mathematical functions were then applied to define regional borders. These were compared with the former provincial boundaries from 1914. It was determined that rivers, despite not being significant obstacles in a region, are the clearest and most enduring delimiting feature in an area.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 41469485Every political border in itself is a memory (reminiscence) of the past, and every redefinition or change of the border involves the past – among other things, borders are also the "physical record" of the history of states. Phantom borders and actual political borders may correspond to each other, or, in other words: modern borders also contain the phantom borders. Political borders may outlive the existence of the states that created them. Many such examples exist in the Central and South-East Europe, and the Slovenian-Croatian border definitely belongs to this category. If we dare develop the phantom border metaphor further, we can ascertain that the modern political borders have a "body" (border crossings, fences, markings), which can become possessed by the historical phantom. How shall we refer to this phenomenon? The expression "zombie border" does not quite fit, because modern borders have a living "body" which is merely possessed by the historical spirit. Could we simply call the phenomenon "a possessed border"?
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 3697012