A multitude of heterogeneous landscapes
Like the Slovenian climate, Slovenia's regions follow one another, intermingling and merging.
To better grasp this climatic interweaving, we can divide the Slovenian territory into five major landscape types. The typology is borrowed from the renowned Slovenian linguist Antonia Bernard in her book La Slovénie et l'Europe: contributions à la connaissance de la Slovénie actuelle (L'Harmattan, Paris, 2005, 170 pages). These include
Alpine Slovenia, in the northwest and north of the country. It includes the Julian Alps, the Kamnik Alps and the Karavanke massif on the Austrian border. This mountain range can be described as the "Southern Eastern Pre-Alps". The name dates back to Late Antiquity, and was coined by the Roman historian Tacitus. It's an area of high relief, sparsely populated, where developed and undeveloped areas coexist, typical of classic human occupation in the Western Alps.
Mediterranean Slovenia, from Nova Gorica to Portoroz. Olive-growing is concentrated in low-lying areas. The local economy has always adapted to the sometimes ambivalent and competitive relationship between the region's two major ports, Koper and Trieste. Although very narrow, it is a strategic crossroads for Slovenia, as evidenced by the recent latent conflict with neighboring Croatia over the Bay of Piran. Its 47 km of coastline are therefore essential to Slovenia's economic vitality, despite the fact that the country has one of the smallest coastlines in the world within the category of states with access to the sea.
Pannonian Slovenia is concentrated around the northeast of the country, but its lowland landscape extends to eight neighboring countries in a territory that includes eastern Austria, mainland Hungary, northern Serbia, central Slovakia, part of the Czech Republic, northeastern Croatia and the northern tip of Romania. It features large openfield plains fed by numerous rivers, and is more oriented towards Central Europe, primarily Hungary.
Dinaric Slovenia, an area stretching from the south to the southeast of the country. It is characterized by a strong presence of limestone massifs. This karst and forested Slovenia is also distinguished by its linguistic and demographic characteristics, with a more mixed society, featuring larger Balkan minorities than elsewhere in the country, and still frequently speaking Serbo-Croatian.
Kernland Slovenia is a median, urban and central Slovenia. This small center, whose geographical reality is not indisputable, is proving to be the country's main economic magnet.
On the artificiality of the attempt at administrative division
Slovenia has a complex, unofficial regional geography. The historical regions are of particular importance because of their long history. The organization of the territories seems to be based on mobile, plural borders of natural origin. Although the artificiality of the regional division no longer needs to be demonstrated, it is nonetheless worth illustrating the administrative division of Slovenia with regard to the legal and statistical division adopted in 2000, and renewed ever since.
The country's largest region, in terms of surface area, is Jugovzhodna Slovenija, i.e. the area extending over part of the south-east of the country, including the towns of Novo Mesto, Kocevje, Ribnica, Škocjan and Trebnje (2,675 km²). In terms of population, the central Slovenian region, the unpronounceable Osredneslovenjska, leads the way with 540,000 inhabitants, half of whom live in Ljubljana and the other half in more or less nearby outlying towns such as Domžale, Vrhnika, Logatec and Kamnik.
An abundant hydrographic network
Slovenia is bordered by a number of rivers that irrigate the land. What is the geographical distribution of these rivers?
The Sava (990 km) is a tributary of the Danube, historically considered to be the natural northern border of the Balkans. Its two sources are in the Slovenian Alps, at Zelenci and Bohinj respectively. It then crosses Slovenia, borders Zagreb, reaches the north of Bosnia-Herzegovina before merging at Belgrade. Its flow is extremely variable with the seasons, decreasing sharply in summer (670m3/s. on average in August) and increasing tenfold at the end of winter (2,300m3/s. in March). The Ljubljanica (41 km), a famous tributary of the Sava, flows through the Slovenian capital, with a vast network of caves along half its course. Its source is near the town of Vrhnika. Constantly associated with Ljubljana, this river is the subject of an overabundant literature: its past abounds in stories of floods and commercial epics, while its aesthetics are sung by great romantic figures such as Ivan Cankar and France Prešeren.
Another major tributary of the Danube isthe Drava (750 km), which rises in the small Italian town of San Candido, continues through the Austrian East Tyrol, reaches eastern Slovenia, notably Maribor, and ends its course at the border between Croatia and Hungary. An important biodiversity site, it has suffered serious pollution problems in recent years due to over-industrialization and heavy hydroelectric power generation.
The Mur (465 km) rises on the Italian-Austrian border, then winds its way through the southern quarter of Austria, passing through the beautiful city of Graz and transiting the eastern tip of Slovenia. It then flows into the Drava. Its hydrological flow is relatively moderate, fluctuating between 85 and 250m3/s. depending on weather conditions. The Slovenian part of the river was designated a biosphere reserve by Unesco in 2018.
The Kolpa (296 km) serves as a natural border between Slovenia and Croatia. Its source is some 40 km from Rijeka, in the mountainous Gorski Kotar region.
A decisive geostrategic crossroads position
The country occupies a geostrategic crossroads position within the Old Continent. In fact, it is a transition area between four European sub-groups: Western Europe with Italy, Southern Europe with Croatia, Central Europe with Austria and Eastern Europe with Hungary. The region's central location has enabled it to integrate particularly well with major European communication routes.
This privileged location, at the crossroads of trade routes, is particularly evident in the fierce competition between Koper, Trieste (Italy) and Rijeka (Croatia) for port-of-call status on the new Silk Roads to the north of the Adriatic. The port of Koper produces some 24 million tonnes, exports 750,000 vehicles and handles almost one million TEU containers. Trieste is not to be outdone, with higher total production (almost 63 million tonnes), but lower statistics for automotive exports (309,000 vehicles) and 725,000 TEU containers. The two ports are engaged in a veritable investment war, which translates into a desire to seduce the Chinese partner and become an essential gateway on the New Silk Road. Koper offers a number of advantages, such as its ideal position for opening up a large part of Central Europe, as well as providing a link between South-East Asia and Europe. However, in contrast to neighboring Italy, Koper's main drawback is its outdated rail network.
Slovenia's position as a geostrategic crossroads also attracts NATO officials, who see Koper as a definite advantage in terms of proximity to potential theaters of operation in Eastern Europe.
Natural resources and agricultural priorities
Slovenia has a relatively rich subsoil, thanks in part to its wide variety of climatic conditions. In Kranj, iron ore has long been one of the region's economic assets. In Idrija, mercury played a key role. The town's mine is still the second largest in the world. Discovered at the end of the 16th century, it was developed with over 700 km of underground galleries. The mercury extracted is in liquid form - a rare occurrence - which enabled the mine to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, some twenty years after its definitive closure. Coal, a major resource in the Velenje and Trbovlje regions, has been mined since the early 19th century in the form of lignite. This type of coal is unique in that it is natural, consisting of hard coal and peat. It is still used today to power the nearby power station. Finally, lead and zinc production is concentrated around the municipality of Mežica and continued for over three centuries, between 1665 and 1994.
In agricultural terms, the land is divided as follows: forests and woods (54%), permanent pastures (24%), arable land (12%), cultivated land (3%) and other (7%). The lowlands are favored for cereal cultivation, while the rest of the country is dominated by livestock farming, viticulture and forestry.
