Assist. Prof. Mateja Breg Valjavec, Ph.D.
Research Fellow at Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Assistant Professor in the field of Geography
+386 1 4706 541
mateja.breg@zrc-sazu.si
Education:
Ph.D. Karstology (University of Nova Gorica, 2012)
B.Sc Geography (University of Ljubljana, 2005)
Fieldwork and research interests:
Being a member of three different geographical departments (environmental protection, GIS and physical geography) she is involved in interdisciplinary studies related to different research issues considering different landscape types, but nevertheless her main research interest goes to karst landscapes in Slovenia and in Europe. She defended PhD thesis in Karstology in 2012 at the University of Nova Gorica. The subject of her PhD studies were dolines in the Dinaric Karst region and human-induced land degradation of karst landscape in relation to non-karstic landscapes. In 2012, she received a postdoctoral project of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport where she continued research on doline degradation and protection; the application placed fifth in a competition of 169 received applications in all science disciplines. Currently she is involved in ongoing research and applied projects dealing with karst landscapes. From September 2017 till February 2020 she was project manager of international project related to valorisation of karst geoheritage and geotourism. One of the most important goals in her career is to improve and increase the international collaboration to exchange knowledge and experiences with foreign experts who tackle similar research challenges in their countries. Therefore, a beneficial experience for her was participation at the 2018 IRCK Training Course on Karst Ecological Geology and Landscape.
Beside basic research she is interested in interpretation of karst heritage, thus she became a member of Interpret Europe Association in 2019. In June 2019 she participated 5-day intensive course for interpretive writer, trying to develop skills for creative writing for general public.
Main visiting appointments:
- Interpret Europe Certified Interpretive Trainer course (CIT), 25 – 27 November 2019, Osijek, Croatia.
- IGU thematic conference Transformation of traditional cultural landscapes, 24 –26 September 2019, Koper, Slovenia. Plenary lecture: Bioindication of human-induced land degradation in potential karstic microrefugia.
- Interpret Europe Certified Interpretive Writer course (CIT), Ljubljana, Slovenia June 2019.
- Participating in Summer School Biodiversity and bioindicators in monitoring and
management of contaminated soils. 4 – 7 June 2019 Department of Agricultural Sciences
University of Naples Federico II, Portici, Italy (organised by Italian Society of Soil Science) - Participating in International Training Course on Karst Ecological Geology and Karst
Landform, organised by UNESCO International Research Centre on Karst, 13 – 26 November 2018, Guilin, China.
Other:
- Member of the Scientific Committee;
– Symposium on Geographical Information Systems in Slovenia - Member of the International Scientific Committee:
– European SCGIS Conference
– Natural Hazards 2018 - Member of the national board of Geomorphological Society of Slovenia
- Peer reviewer for scientific papers
– Science of Total Environment
– Nature Scientific Reports
– Opengeoscience
– Acta Geographica Slovenica
– Acta Carsologica
– International Journal of Speleology
– Geographic Bulletin
– Geographic Information Systems in Slovenia (book series) - Awards
– Melik Award for young scientist, Slovenian Association of Geographers, 2015.
– Award “Excellent trainee”, International Research Centre on Karst under the Auspices of UNESCO, Guilin, China (November 2018).
Selected publications:
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, BÁTORI, Zoltán, VOJTKÓ, András, KEPPEL, Gunnar, TÖLGYESI, Csaba, ČARNI, Andraž, ZORN, Matija, FARKAS, Tünde, ERDŐS, László, KISS, Péter János, MÓDRA, Gábor, 2020. Anthropogenic disturbances alter the conservation value of karst dolines. Biodiversity and conservation 29/2, p. 503-525.
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, TOMIĆ, Nemanja, ANTIĆ, Aleksandar, MARKOVIĆ, Slobodan B., ĐORĐEVIĆ, Tijana, ZORN, Matija, 2019. Exploring the potential for speleotourism development in Eastern Serbia : Geoheritage 11/2 p. 359-369.
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, TIČAR, Jure, TOMIĆ, Nemanja, ZORN, Matija, MARKOVIĆ, Slobodan B., GAVRILOV, Milivoj B. 2018: Speleotourism in Slovenia : balancing between mass tourism and geoheritage protection. Open geosciences10/1, p. 344-357.
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, ZORN, Matija, RIBEIRO, Daniela, 2018: Mapping war geoheritage : recognising geomorphological traces of war. Open geosciences 10/1, p. 385-394
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, ZEGA, Mojca, CERNATIČ-GREGORIČ, Anica. “Zasuli so vrtačo” : ali kaj nam pomeni dediščina Krasa? Geografski obzornik : časopis za geografsko vzgojo in izobraževanje 66/1, p. 4-10.
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, FERK, Mateja, ZORN, Matija, KUMER, Peter, SMREKAR, Aleš, 2019: Raznolika pokrajina, v kateri je človek pustil svoj pečat. Gea : poljudnoznanstvena revija 29, p. 52-55.
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, ZEGA, Mojca. Zasute vrtače – potencialna nevarnost za vodne vire. V: GLOBEVNIK, Lidija (ur.), ŠIRCA, Andrej (ur.). Zbornik, Drugi slovenski kongres o vodah 2017, [19. in 20. april 2017, Podčetrtek]. Ljubljana: DVS – Društvo vodarjev Slovenije. 2017, str. 158-163.
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, DUNATO PEJNOVIĆ, Nadia, ŠKERJANC, Katja, PERIC, Borut, ZORN, Matija, 2019. Karst depressions : geoheritage hotspots on karst surface. Karst hydrogeology – research trends and applications : abstracts & guide book. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC. p. 84-85.
- BREG VALJAVEC, Mateja, KOMAC, Blaž, ZORN, Matija. Recognising karst geodiversity using LIDAR data : case study of dolines. V: Naučni skup 125 godina od publikovanja monografije Das Karstphänomen Jovana Cvijića : sreda, 7. novembar 2018. godine, svečana sala SANU, Beograd: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, Odbor za kras i speleologiju. 2018, p. 19.
