Prerequisits:

Before the exam, students have to present a seminar work in front of other students.

Students will be assessed by the overall rating for the exam (50 %) and the seminar work (50 %).

Content (Syllabus outline):

• Importance of karst resources
• Examples of exploitation of karst resources
• Formation of karst cultural landscapes
• Examples of human impact on karst landscapes (e.g., degradation of dolines, cave and groundwater pollution presented on case studies from Slovenia)
• Approaches to assess the disturbance (degradation) of karst landscapes
• Karst features and sustainable development
• Karst geodiversity and geoheritage
• Development of sustainable tourism and geotourism in karst
• Sustainable management of karst protected areas

Readings:

• Skripta
• van Beynen, P. E. (ed.) 2011. Karst Management. Springer: Dordrecht, New York.
• Ciglič, R., Hrvatin, M., Komac, B., Perko, D., 2012. Karst as a criterion for defining areas less suitable for agriculture. Acta geographica Slovenica, 52-1.
• Ford, D., Williams, P., 2007. Karst Hydrogeology and Geomorphology. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons.
• Gams, I, Gabrovec, M., 1999. Land use and human impact in Dinaric karst. International Journal of Speleology, 28-1.
• Gams, I., 2003. Kras v Sloveniji v prostoru in času. Ljubljana, Založba ZRC.
• Kaligarič, M., Ivajnšič, D., 2014. Vanishing landscape of the “classic” Karst: changed landscape identity and projections for the future. Landscape and Urban Planning, 132.
• Prelovšek, M., Zupan Hajna, N., 2011. Pressures and Protection of the Underground Karst – Cases from Slovenia and Croatia. Postojna, Inštitut za raziskovanje krasa ZRC SAZU.
• Unesco, 2010. Sustainability of the Karst Environment: Dinaric Karst and Other Karst Regions. Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
• van Beynen, P., Townsend, K., 2005. A Disturbance Index for Karst Environments. Environmental Management, 36-1.
• Tičar, J., Tomić, N., Breg Valjavec, M., Zorn, M., Marković, S. B., Gavrilov, M. B. (2018). Speleotourism in Slovenia: balancing between mass tourism and geoheritage protection. Open geosciences 10-1.

Objectives and competences:

• the use of scientific methods in solving professional problems
• communication and mastery of karst terminology
• knowledge and understanding of concepts from the history of human karst interventions (cultural landscape)
• the ability to make an assessment of the state of the karst region
• understanding the importance of karst for man
• ability to understand the vulnerability of the karst underground, aquifers in terms of water supply planning
• the use of acquired knowledge in practice

Intended learning outcomes:

• know the fundamentals of karst systems (natural and socio-economic)
• recognise different karst resources and their role for socio-economic development
• understand the human impacts on karst landscapes
• qualifies to think critically and creatively when evaluating anthropogenic disturbance to karst

Learning and teaching methods:

Types of learning/teaching:

• Frontal teaching
• Work in smaller groups or pair work
• Independent students work

Teaching methods:

• Explanation
• Conversation/discussion/debate
• Case studies
• Different presentation
• Field work (e.g. company visits)
• Inviting guests from companies

Assessment:

• Long written assignments (40 %)
• Presentations (10 %)
• Final examination (written/oral) (50 %)