ABSTRACTS  OF LECTURES AND ACTIVITIES 

 

dr. Katja Vintar Mally (University of Ljubljana): Sustainable management of environmental resources as the backbone of sustainable regional development

• Monday, July 1, 11.30 – 13.00
• In order to achieve sustainable development globally or regionally, sustainable management of environmental resources is of key importance. Current use of different types of environmental resources (biodiversity, ecosystem services, land, renewable and non-renewable resources) is predominantly unsustainable. The lecture is focusing on the types of environmental resources, examples of their unsustainable use and its consequences at the regional as well as global level.

 

dr. Dejan Rebernik (University of Ljubljana): Regional resources of Ljubljana (City excursion)

• Monday, July 1, 14.00 – 18.00
• Ljubljana experienced very intensive urban development in the period of economic transition between 1990 and 2019. The main goal of the excursion is to visit and explain the most typical processes of urban transformation: redevelopment of derelict urban areas, gentrification, turistification, increased social segregation and others.

 

dr. Jiří Schneider (Mendel University, Brno): Ecosystem services and diservices – progressive tool for spatial planning and decision-making proces

• Tuesday, July 2, 9.00 – 10.30

• Both natural and man-shaped or created ecosystems provide wide range of benefits to human society. These benefits are generally marked as ecosystem services. The initial impulse for a significant development of this concept is a Convention on Biological Diversity. The presence of ecosystem services is a result of the state of biodiversity and ecosystems and their direct or indirect, conscious and spontaneous use by people.

  Ecosystem services and disservices are included in many spatial planning documents and development concepts. The society carries out numerous economic measures and research to influence them - flood control measures, urban greenery, erosion control and many more. In practice, however, this is not called ecosystem services (ES). The ES concept allows a financial expression of their importance and value. This brings an information value that enables more accurate and responsible support for decision-making on land use, urban and regional development.

 

dr. Jiří Schneider (Mendel University, Brno): Mapping of recreational potential of the urban river space

• Tuesday, July 2, 11.00 – 12.30 

• The method of evaluation of watercourse landscaping in urban and adjacent suburban areas is defined for a single continuous homogeneous part of a revitalised watercourse, of a minimum length of 100 m. The process of evaluation of recreation effect of watercourse landscaping is based on evaluation of a total of six indexes, their criteria and elements from a total of three areas: (1) Revitalisation – River basin and course direction, flow, hydrological régime and visual evaluation of water quality, river bank and flooding area; (2) Recreation – Presence of social amenities and area accessibility; (3)Landscape – Presence of landscape element
  These three areas are evaluated in relation to suitability of the landscape for recreation and recreation activities: (1) Tourism – walking, cycling, in-line skating, horse riding; (2) Recreation near water – bathing, wading, sunbathing/relax; (3) Water tourism – canoe/raft, motor boats; (4) Sport fishing – trout and non-trout waters; (6) Observation/photography – waterfowl, water animals, bank and nearbank vegetation

 

dr. Irma Potočnik Slavič (University of Ljubljana): “Geographies of Grey” – the resources related to rural ageing and its implications in Slovenia

• Tuesday, July 2, 14.45 – 17.00
• Slovenia ranks as 9^th amongst the states worldwide with the most unfavourable age structure (taking into consideration the share of population aged 65+ in 2050). The lecture will discuss the geographical implications of the (de)institutionalisation of rural ageing. From the perspective of research and policy making, the problem of accessing relevant data is to be highlighted. Slovenian rural areas have to confront with its demographics and employ various innovative approaches to address the issues of ageing in rural areas.

 

dr. Jarosław Działek, dr. Monika Murzyn-Kupisz (Jagiellonian University, Krakow): Culture in sustainable development

• Wednesday, July 3, 9.00 – 12.30
• The lectures will offer an introduction to the broad variety of ways in which culture is understood as material (historic buildings and sites, moveable objects) and immaterial heritage (customs, skills, traditions), cultural institutions (museums, libraries, cultural centres) and cultural producers (i.e. artists, craftsmen) as well as the way of life might both enable and contribute to sustainable development. Issues taken into account will include the promotion of sustainable uses of local resources, including cultural resources (i.e. within the framework of the circular economy paradigm), more socially inclusive and environmentally friendly public services and lifestyles, enhancing social links and ties (social capital), sustainable development of tourism and sustainable regeneration of degraded areas and sites. Success factors, opportunities and challenges linked with both cultural resilience and sustainable uses of culture in the process of local development will also be considered.

 

dr. Pavel Ptáček (Mendel University, Brno): Re-conversion of brownfields as a tool for sustainable urban and regional development

• Wednesday, July 3, 14.00 – 17.15
• Theoretical approaches to brownfields regeneration in developed countries and best practices from different towns and cities in the Czech republic; typology of brownfields; the role of public and private sector in brownfields regeneration – best practices; spatial planning and brownfields; systematic policies helping brownfields regeneration and other factors influencing their regeneration.

 

dr. Monika Murzyn-Kupisz (Jagiellonian University, Krakow): Measuring the value of cultural and natural resources: too valuable to be valued?

• Thursday, July 4, 9.00 – 12.30
• The issue of valuation of both cultural (cultural heritage, heritage sites, cultural institutions) and natural (environmental) resources has been one of the key themes of investigation and analysis of both cultural economics and environmental economics in the recent decades. As such, it has become one of important aspects of the sustainable development debate. During the lecture we will look at the origins, challenges and methods of valuing ‘the priceless’. Diversity of values linked with natural and cultural resources will be defined and most important valuation methods presented (non-market valuation methods such as the Contingent Valuation Method and revealed preferences methods such as the Travel Cost Method and the Hedonic Pricing Method) referring to examples of studies and research endeavours from all over the world, in particular Central and Eastern Europe and Poland.

 

dr. Jarosław Działek (Jagiellonian University, Krakow): Sustainable disaster risk management

• Thursday, July 4, 14.00 – 17.15
• During the past few decades social and economic losses due to natural disasters have been increasing significantly, both in developed and in developing countries. Main reason for that is growing, often uncontrolled, development of areas at risk of disasters, especially floods which are considered the biggest natural hazard in Central and Eastern Europe.  We will learn about and discuss different top-down and bottom-up approaches to flood risk management, that is: ‘moving water away from people’, ‘moving people away from water’ and ‘learning how to live with flood’. A particular focus will be put on land-use planning, and on vulnerability and resilience of at-risk communities. We will situate the current debates on changing disaster (flood) risk management strategies in the context of sustainability and its social, economic and environmental dimensions.

 

dr. Tajan Trobec, dr. Simon Kušar (University of Ljubljana): Sustainable use of water resources in Vitanje municipality (Eastern Slovenia)

• Friday, July 6, 8.00 – 17.00 (Field trip)
• Students will take part in the final presentation of the results of the interdisciplinary student project "Water - the strategic good of Vitanje", which addresses the issue of sustainable use of water resources in the municipality of Vitanje. The municipality of Vitanje, which is located in the eastern part of Slovenia between the Pohorje massif and Vitanjske Karavanke mountains has large quantities of drinking water which are of regional importance. Nevertheless, only 270 households from 700 in the municipality of Vitanje are connected to the public water supply network. Past attempts to ensure comprehensive management of water supply in the municipality have not been successful. Participants of the summer school will hear the results of the project, follow the discussion of local stakeholders, and will be the first visitors of a new educational trail, which is the most important result of the current project aimed at promoting the sustainable use of water resources.

 

dr. Staša Mesec, mag. Olga Abram (Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy – EUSAIR Facility Point): Regional cooperation in planning sustainable use of regional resources

• Monday, July 8, 9.00 – 17.00
• By simulating the regional cooperation process, students will develop different approaches to understand various issues of managing regional resources that extend into several countries.

 

dr. Barbara Lampič, dr. Simon Kušar, Nejc Bobovnik (University of Ljubljana): Functionally degraded areas in the context of sustainable spatial development; Functionally degraded areas in Domžale municipality

• Tuesday, July 9, 9.00 – 17.00
• The focus of presentations, seminar and fieldwork will be geographical approach in understanding the spatial, environmental and functional dimensions of derelict areas in Slovenia as developed during their first comprehensive inventory in Slovenia in 2016 and 2017. The methodology for their identification and the model of comprehensive assessment of functionally degraded areas as a support for sustainable spatial and development planning in Slovenia will be presented. Some of functionally derelict areas from the municipality of Domžale will be visited in the afternoon as a practical part of the course.

 

dr. Rahman Nurković (University of Sarajevo): (Un)sustainable use of regional resources: examples from Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Wednesday, July 10, 9.00 – 12.30
• In contemporary period of economic-geographic development, around 35% of population live in rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most of the rural area is lagging behind, which reflects in a significant negativity of all demographic, sociocultural and spatial indicators. With a change of socio-economic system into market economy, rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina are facing new challenges. In today’s world, processes of urbanization and industrialization erase boundaries between cities and villages. Many of applied technology achievements like road and rail routes, electric power, telephone network and other increasingly bring, among other, industry, different warehouses of goods, recreation zones and similar to rural areas.
• Creative industries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, contrary to their low market dimension, have an economic potential, which is significantly important in comparison with other segments of the economy. Resources and possibilities in the domain of the development of creative clusters or art incubators in regional centers are especially promising in the towns of Bihać, Mostar, Sarajevo and Tuzla.

 

dr. Jernej Zupančič (University of Ljubljana): Spatial resources of borderland

• Wednesday, July 10, 14.00 – 16.30
• Border areas are a sensitive and vulnerable part of the national space. Due to their (often) peripheral character, they have limited access to the existed resources and are dependent to the central areas, as well as to the neighbor borderland. On the other hand, they also have some developmental  opportunities in particular; these stem from the characteristics of the spatial structure of the borderland, the recognition of the advantages along the strategic corridors and the use of cross-border services. The key is how national politics approach to the border areas. The purpose of the course is to present methods of assessing spatial resources of borderlands and the necessary policies that can realize these opportunities (by selected Slovenian cases).

 

Dr. Simon Kušar, dr. Boštjan Rogelj (University of Ljubljana): Field trip to Western Slovenia: Coastal area and Vipava Valley – TBD

• Thursday, July 11, 8.00 – 18.00