Naturalness level of land use in a hilly region in north-eastern Slovenia

Abstract

Researchers analyse land use status and its rates of change and try to define the most appropriate structure that suits the environmental characteristics. The article focuses on an analysis of the naturalness level of land use in three hilly regions in north-eastern Slovenia (Slovenske Gorice, Haloze, and Goricko) with the help of geoinformation tools. Land use structure is one of the best indicators of human presence in the landscape. The aim was to expose those parts of catchments that can be regarded as less natural or more natural. We divided the catchments into hydrogeographical areas and analysed them by calculating the urbanity index. The least natural areas in 2018 were located in Slovenske Gorice Hills and the most natural were those in Haloze. The urbanity index diminished between 2002 and 2018 for all the areas except two. The main reason for a higher average of naturalness level is overgrowth – changing agricultural areas into areas with bushes and trees. Natural disasters, e.g. floods and intensive erosion can be mitigated with suitable land use. // Raziskovalci analizirajo stanje rabe tal in trende spreminjanja ter skusajo ugotoviti, kaksna struktura je okoljsko najbolj sprejemljiva. V prispevku smo se osredotocili na analizo rabe tal treh gricevnatih obmocij severovzhodne Slovenije (Slovenske gorice, Haloze in Goricko) z vidika stopnje naravnosti s pomocjo geoinformacijskih metod. Raba tal je namrec eden najbolj nazornih pokazateljev clovekovega delovanja v pokrajini. Dolociti smo želeli posamezna obmocja porecij, ki jih lahko oznacimo za bolj naravna, in obmocja, ki so manj naravna. Porecja smo razdelili na hidrogeografska obmocja in jih analizirali glede na indeks urbanosti. Glede na izracunane indekse so bila v povprecju leta 2018 najmanj naravna obmocja v Slovenskih goricah, najbolj pa v Halozah. Indeks urbanosti se je od leta 2002 do 2018 sicer povsod zmanjsal, razen na dveh obmocjih. Vzrok za povecanje stopnje naravnosti v povprecju gre predvsem na racun zarascanja oziroma spreminjanja nekoc kmetijskih zemljisc v zemljisca v zarascanju. Z ustrezno rabo tal lahko omilimo naravne nesrece, na primer pojav poplav in povecane erozije.