Land-use changes in Slovenian terraced landscapes

This article presents the findings of a study on long-term land-use changes in eight areas of various Slovenian landscapes. The emphasis is on comparing changes on terraced and non-terraced land from the early nineteenth century to the present and on a typological classification of land-use change, whereby a fifth type (i.e., extensification) is added to the established four types in Slovenia: afforestation, grass overgrowth, intensification, and urbanization. The article explains which factors have a decisive impact on land-use changes, especially in terms of abandoning terrace cultivation. The methodology used proves that there are important differences in the rate of land-use change between terraced and non-terraced land

Atlas on quality of life in Slovenia

Atlas on Quality of Life in Slovenia analyses quality of life through dimensions, domains, and subdomains as defined in the ESPON QoL–Quality of Life Measurements and Methodology project. To do this, we first collected appropriate indicators and data for all the Slovenian territorial levels (national, NUTS 2 or cohesion regions, NUTS 3 or statistical regions, and LAU 2 or munic­ipalities). Altogether we collected eighty-four indicators for all the territorial levels, and the most representative ones for respective subdomains were included in the Dashboard, a tool that helps decisionmakers calculate the territorial quality of life for their regions. Based on the forty indicators included, the Dashboard for the policymakers automatically provided composite indexes at the level of subdomains, domains, and dimensions, as well as the final territorial quality of life index. The calculations were made for the NUTS 3 level (twelve statistical regions) and LAU 2 level (212 municipalities) in Slovenia. For both territorial levels, maps were prepared, showing composite indexes and indicators used for calculating composite indexes at the subdomain level. To place quality of life in Slovenia in a European context, we also prepared maps at the European level with close-ups for Slovenia and the NUTS 2 regions bordering Slovenia. Due to the different indicators used and the respective differences in the timespan of the data, the European maps are not directly comparable to the Slovenian ones, although the Slovenian ones can be compared because they present the most recent data calculated at different territorial levels