The Geography of Slovenia: Small But Diverse

This book is the first to give a comprehensive and detailed overview of the complete geography of Slovenia in English. Only very few countries, even considerably larger ones, can boast the landscape diversity found in Slovenia since the Alps, the Pannonian Basin, the Dinaric Alps, and the Mediterranean meet and interweave in this small corner of Central Europe, as do Germanic, Hungarian, Slavic, and Romance cultural influences.

The book provides a systematical overview of physical and human geographical elements of Slovenia from landforms to cultural characteristics. Special attention is given to landscape diversity, to the presentation of Slovene landscape types and regions, to some particularities and interesting facts of Slovenia, and to the position of Slovenia in the World. The book also illustrates some other important geographical phenomena, processes and interactions between nature and society in nowadays Slovenia.

This volume appeals to researchers as well as students in the field of regional geography. It can also serve as a source for complete background information as well as a field guide for Slovenia.

Drago Perko was born in 1961 in Kranj, Slovenia. In 1985 he received a bachelor's degree in geography and sociology at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts. He received his master's degree (1989) and doctorate (1993) in geography from the same institution. Since 1986 he has worked at the ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute. He served as the institute's director from 1993 to 2018, and since 1994 he has headed the institute's Department of Regional Geography.

His research interests focus on regional geography, geographical typification and regionalization, landscape ecology, geographic information systems, digital thematic cartography, and geographical names. He heads projects, advises junior researchers, serves as the executive editor of the journal Acta geographica Slovenica, and is a member of the editorial boards of the journals Acta Geobalcanica, National Geographic Slovenija, and Geografski vestnik (Geographical Bulletin), and the coeditor of several book series. Since 1995 he has been a member of the Slovenian Government Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Names. From 2006 to 2015 he was the national coordinator for geography at the Slovenian Research Agency. He has received several awards, including the ZRC SAZU Gold Medal in 1999, which is the highest recognition in the humanities in Slovenia.

Rok Ciglič was born in 1983 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 2008 he received a bachelor's degree in geography at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts, and he received his doctorate in geography from the same institution in 2013. In 2008 he started working for the ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute, and since 2014 he has headed the institute's Department of Geographic Information Systems.

His research interests focus on geographic information systems, landscape classification, and natural disasters. He is a member of the editorial boards of the journals Acta geographica Slovenica, Acta Geobalcanica, and Geografski vestnik (Geographical Bulletin). He is also the coeditor of the book series Naravne nesreče (Natural Disasters) and Geografski informacijski sistemi v Sloveniji (Geographic Information Systems in Slovenia). From 2008 to 2015 he was a member of the executive committee of the Ljubljana Geographical Society, where he was in charge of cartography and publishing. In 2010 he was awarded a grant from the international Society for Conservation GIS. In 2015 he received the Melik Award for Best Young Researcher from the Association of Slovenian Geographers.

Matija Zorn was born in 1975 in Kranj, Slovenia. In 2001 he received a bachelor's degree in geography and history at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts, and he received his doctorate in geography from the same institution in 2007. In 2001 he was employed by the ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute. He served as the institute's assistant director from 2007 to 2018, and since 2018 he has been its director. Since 2008 he has headed the institute's Department of Physical Geography.

His research interests focus on physical geography, especially geomorphology and the geography of natural disasters, and he also works on land degradation, environmental history, and geographic information systems. Since 2011 he has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Management at the University of Primorska in Koper, Slovenia. Since 2012 he has held the position of visiting lecturer at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia. He heads projects, advises junior researchers, and is the coeditor of several book series. Since 2011 he has been the editor-in-chief of the journal Geografski vestnik (Geographical Bulletin) and chief editor for physical geography for the journal Acta geographica Slovenica. He has received several awards, including the ZRC SAZU Silver Medal in 2009.