This article discusses the urban development of Zagreb in the transition period. It analysesfour processes which have caused spatial and functional changes in the city’s developmentwithin its administrative limits. These are: the process of a new CBD establishment, expansionof hypermarkets and commercial centres, housing construction under new conditions andtransportation problems and solutions. Under the influence of these processes the spatiofunctionalstructure of the city becomes more and more complex. In this connection the cityhas started to have more influence on the urban region’s development.

new CBD --- hypermarkets and commercial centres --- housing construction --- traffic infrastructure --- Zagreb --- Croatia

Environmental protection in the Ljubljana city municipality is one of three basic (besideeconomic and social), but unequally treated spheres of sustainable urban development.Compared to other European cities of similar size, Ljubljana is not supposed to be amongthe most degraded urban areas. However, with some additions, the Spatial plan of theLjubljana city municipality is a suitable expert scheme for more environmentally adjustedspatial development. Essential sustainable spatial challenges of cities policies in Ljubljana andLjubljana city municipality are to protect the underground water of Ljubljansko polje, to calmdown the suburbanization processes and road transport within the environmental limits.

spatial development --- sustainable development --- environmental protection --- Ljubljana

The growth of settlements in Slovenia has over the decades been associated with the growth ofthe outside borders of settlements beyond the historically and organically conditioned borders.Nowadays the greatest dynamics is seen within the suburban and rural settlements. The secondcharacteristic of modern spatial settlement transformation is connected to the dominant anddisperse build-up area with relatively free-standing one-apartment houses, which instead oflongtime wishes for decentralistic concentration of residential areas, deviates from the politicalgoals and in proportion raises the costs of infrastructure.

geography of Slovenia --- social geography --- settlement system --- urbanization --- suburbanization --- settlement planning

This contribution discusses three paradigms of spatial development of Slovenian towns,namely: garden town, outskirts and fractal town. The intention of this approach was comparisonof towns with each other, as well as familiarization with their structure that originated throughimplementation of the individual concept. Findings are based on comparisons of threeresidential areas in Maribor, Ravne na Koroškem and Ljubljana.

morphology --- paradigm --- garden city --- neighbourhood --- fractal city

According to many commentators, the most important characteristic of 2006 local electionsin Slovenia is unexpected success of independent (nonparty) municipality council lists andmayor candidates. In our research, we wanted to find out if these statements are correct or arethey just the effect of unexpected success of nonparty candidates and municipality councillists in specific municipalities. Three questions are especially important to us: Are we reallywitnessing important shift on Slovenian political space? Are the results of 2006 local electionreally distinguishing form previous election, concerning the success of nonparty municipalitycouncil lists and mayor candidates? Are there any essential differences between differentregions regarding representation of nonparty mayors and municipality councilors?

local elections --- electoral geography --- parties --- nonparty candidates

Air pollution is due to road traffic an inevitable outcome of internal combustion in engines ofvehicles and some other processes. Air near the roads is more polluted with some pollutants,such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, particulate matter and some others.Monitoring the air quality is a key issue, when one wants to estimate environmental impactsof the road traffic. The article shows a method of passive samplers for air quality monitoringalong different roads in the area of Ljubljana Municipality.

Municipality of Ljubljana --- road traffic --- air pollution --- diffusive samplers --- air quality --- nitrogen dioxide

Contrary to the well-studied Pleistocene glaciation, periglacial phenomena in Slovenia havebeen given less scientific attention because they are not particularly evident in high mountainsdue to prevailing carbonate rocks. This, however, is not the case in the Pohorje Mountains:built of igneous and metamorphic rocks, it was not glaciated due to its insufficient elevation,but was subject to periglacial processes. In the article, some of the periglacial landforms ofthe Pohorje Mountains are presented for the first time, especially nivation hollows in theuppermost zone, and the Jezerc cirque where a smaller glacier, unknown until recently, existedat the peak of the glaciation.

geomorphology --- periglacial landforms --- glaciation --- nivation hollows --- cirques --- Pohorje Mountains --- Slovenia

The sums of average daily temperatures higher than 10 °C (TS10) in the period from April toSeptember describe the temperature conditions in the given area. The absolute precipitationsums concerning the season, i.e. from April to September, and the Seljaninov´s HydrothermicalCoefficient (HTC) during the period from June to August describe precipitation and moistureconditions. The HTC values confirm the fact that the South Moravian region belongs amongthe most arid regions in the Czech Republic. The attention is, also, devoted to connectionsbetween the wine-grape yield and the weather conditions in 1997, an abnormal year from themeteorological point of view.

winegrowing --- temperature sum --- precipitation sum --- Seljaninov´s Hydrothermical Coefficient --- wine-grape yields --- Southern Moravia --- decade 1993 – 2002