Sustainable Mountain Regions: Challenges and Perspectives in Southeastern Europe

The main goal of this research is to analyze the regulatory framework and related geographic problems of regional development policies that concern Bulgarian mountains in the post-socialist period. Based on the need to establish and implement a state policy for integrated sustainable governance of mountain regions in this country, the investigation identifies and structures the challenges to regional development policy making.

At the European Union (EU) scale, the most important challenge is related to the absence of territorial policy integration and inept priority setting of regional development. Mountain areas of Southeastern Europe need to become a special focus of EU policy making because they make up the most sizeable parts of the Union’s “deepest” periphery. In these areas, the overlap of peripheries of different geographic scales and diverse nature (physical geography limitations, depopulation and aging, severely lagging economies, and increasing political insecurity at the external EU borders) additionally intensifies their unfavorable characteristics.

At the state scale, identification of the territorial units eligible for assistance from the hilly belt presents the most socially and politically sensitive challenge for both geographers and regional policy makers. Policy instability, the inadequate scale of territorial governance of mountainous regions, and significant deficiencies in territorial policy integration are also among the challenges to sustainable mountain development policies in Bulgaria.

Unfavorable site conditions, short vegetation periods, low accessibility, and market pressure are the issues with which small structured farms in the Alps must cope. Horizontal and vertical cooperation and a pluri-activity business model to best exploit their economic possibilities is their response. Manifold and beneficial interlinkages between farms and accommodations are quite common in the Alps to sustain farming activities. In explorative studies in South Tyrol, Italy’s northernmost province, various forms of cooperative approaches were investigated to point out diverging expectations of demand and supply as well as factors favoring and hindering cooperation. For sustaining mutual respect, accommodations have to be aware that typical regional products from a valley have a limited quantity because of season or limited production capacities. Hence, they lack planning security. Coping with these circumstances requires a proper regional food cooperation scheme with sophisticated logistical and organizational solutions, with innovative approaches of trustable entrepreneurs to promote these certified and high-quality regional food products, and the valley’s authenticity as a unique selling point. Distinctive menus, authentic people, and untouched nature are in themselves ambassadors of the valley. Successful integration of South Tyrolean food cooperative systems in touristic packages has strengthened the market position of accommodations and resulted in meaningful side and multiplier effects along the whole value-added chain in the region.

The application of hydrological models for the assessment of ecosystem services provides multiple opportunities for their quantitative analysis. Furthermore, Geographic Information System (GIS)-based models provide the possibility for spatially explicit analyses of model outputs and their representation in maps. A broadly applied and freely available hydrological model is the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The tool for its application in ArcGIS is ArcSWAT. The application of the model in mountain areas in Bulgaria can provide better understanding of the supply of ecosystem services and especially the water-related services, considering the large landscape diversity and climate differences within mountain watersheds. Still, data characteristics and limitations in Bulgaria can be restrictive for the quality of the model outputs.

ArcSWAT is created and actively supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Consequently, the soil and land cover typologies and their respective lookup tables that are built into the model database are based on freely available USA datasets. The climate database integrated in the model is from stations throughout the United States and does not cover other countries, which makes the application of the model outside the United States more complicated.

For Bulgaria, the most detailed soil and land cover datasets use Bulgarian typologies, which have rarely been correlated to European or global types, and no correlation with US typologies have been found in the literature. Additionally, vegetation information within the different natural and semi-natural land cover classes is not freely available. The access to daily climate data is also limited, especially for solar radiation, relative humidity, and wind speed, which are harder to collect than temperature and precipitation.

In this study we show how the application of the SWAT hydrological model in mountain watersheds in Bulgaria is possible, even with the existent data limitations. The test watershed used for that purpose is the Upper Ogosta watershed. The benefits of running the model for understanding of the hydrological cycle and the supply of ecosystem services within the area are discussed, as well as the issues and restrictions resulting from data limitations.

This chapter presents the results of land cover and carbon storage mapping in a study area located in the Central Balkan Mountains. WorldView-2 satellite images and ortophoto maps were used to define the land cover in the area. CORINE land cover classification at the fourth level was applied for the mapping. The carbon stock was determined using InVEST model, and results were validated with in situ data from eight experimental sites in different land use classes.

Subalpine spruce forests are among the best preserved woodland ecosystems in Bulgaria with respect to their structure, functions, and biodiversity. Considerable territories of these forests were declared as protected areas at the beginning of the twentieth century, which allowed them to develop predominantly naturally. Nowadays, climate changes and the consequent increasing number of disturbances in the spruce forests across Europe raises the question to what extent the non-intervention regime of protected forests is compatible with the concepts of sustainable management and the protection functions of these forests. To answer this question we studied the natural development of three subalpine spruce forests in the nature reserves Parangalitsa (1933) in the Rila Mountains, Bistrishko branishte (1934) in Vitosha Mountain, and Beglika (1960) in the Rhodopes Mountains. We created GIS databases for these reserves and used them to analyze satellite and field data. We found that small- and large-scale disturbances such as windthrows, bark beetle outbreaks, and fires are part of the natural dynamics of subalpine spruce forests. Their resilience to disturbances is mainly dependent on the availability of structural elements that are often missing in managed forests, such as heterogeneous forest structures and spatial patterns, as well as specific regeneration substrates such as deadwood or windthrow mounds. Thus, we recommend that the sustainable management of subalpine spruce forests should be focused on preserving and, where needed, restoring the structural elements that are characteristic for the natural spruce forests.

Climate change has been and increasingly will be a major threat to the ski tourism industry, whose survival is highly dependent on the existence of snow cover of sufficient depth and duration. For this matter, it is even now more usual for the ski resorts to adapt to this issue by various measures at the technical, operational, and political levels. Technically speaking, snowmaking has become the method most used throughout the industry to combat the immediate impacts of climate change, while moving the ski areas to higher terrains has been standing out as an another option, wherever available and feasible. In this study, the aim is to project the future climatic changes in snowmaking capacity; in other words, technical snow reliability, and the moving requirements, if any, of the four major ski resorts in Bulgaria for the period of 2016–2030 with respect to the control period of 1991–2005. For this purpose, the past and the future climatic conditions for the technical snow reliability of the ski resorts and their immediate surroundings are determined by the temperature and the relative humidity values generated and projected through the Regional Climate Model RegCM 4.4 of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) by scaling the global climate model MPI-ESM-MR of Max Planck Institute for Meteorology down to a resolution of 10 km. The model is further processed according to the recent RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 concentration scenarios of the IPCC. The model outputs on air temperature and relative humidity are utilized for determination of wet-bulb temperatures through psychographic conversions that ultimately provide us with thresholds for snowmaking limits. Findings display the temporal changes in the snowmaking hours of the ski resorts at various altitudinal levels calculated according to the environmental lapse rates. Such displays can guide the practitioners in considering investment lives and moving the ski resorts according to optimistic and pessimistic projections.

The aim of this contribution is to determine the hydric significance of the mountain river basin of Poprad, with focus on its land use, and to estimate the impact of the current landscape structure on the hydric functions. To follow this aim, attributes such as geomorphological, hydrogeological, soil, and climatic conditions, current landscape structure, and the ecological status of the forest were analyzed and evaluated. These attributes have particular range and weight. After an analysis, the hydric significance of the study area was determined and subsequently classified into four categories. Also, hydric significance was determined on the level of river sub-basins. The following categories of hydric significance were set: excellent, good, average, and limited; these express the ability of the landscape to retain water. Such knowledge, hand in hand with optimal management, can contribute to the prevention of floods in the study area.

Bulgarian mountain tourism locations show great variety in terms of their size and the facilities offered, the type and level of product and market development, as well as in the patterns of economic structures, local community involvement, and tourism impacts. This chapter presents results of a wider project dedicated to identification of tourism development models in mountain areas and related supporting policies. The research is focused on three small destinations in the Central Balkan Range and the Rhodope Mountain. The studied destinations are compared against a set of 30 characteristics united in three groups, and different patterns of local tourism development are identified based on current business practices. Their sustainability implications are discussed in terms of general development approach, policy implementation, and tourism impacts. The study results confirm the idea that two types of preconditions are needed for successful tourism development: (1) “necessary” – pull factors and (2) “sufficient” – the will to develop tourism industry through investments in accommodation and infrastructure. The latter refer not only to the entrepreneurship but also to the crucial role of local authorities.

For certain mountain regions, tourism appears as the most prominent developmental perspective. Therefore, promoting and underpinning the unique natural, morphological, and cultural traits of such regions are essential to enhance their economies in a proper and sustainable manner. Zagori, Greece, is a typical example of such regions because of its rich natural and cultural heritage. Nowadays, e-tourism emerges as one of the most popular means of tourism services. There are many commercial e-tourism applications that offer valuable services. However, they do not address certain limitations sufficiently. One of the typical problems is that of misinformation or information overload. Although this applies mainly in urban areas, the existence of a large city close to a mountain region could confuse the visitor because of the many and spatially concentrated points of interest in this urban area compared to the more sparse ones in the mountains. Thus, it is important to design the pertinent application both to be adjusted to the visitor’s preferences and to highlight the local advantages of a region. Moreover, mountainous regions require extra services to provide security details, especially during activities in the wilderness. Another significant issue is that of visual occlusion and user disorientation induced by the rugged terrain and the landscape heterogeneity, regarding the matter of navigating and finding areas of interest. To tackle these issues, the respective solutions are employed: (1) providing a properly classified content, particularly for the specific area of study, attached to a user-friendly interface giving the ability to switch between natural and cultural points of interest in a handy manner; (2) enabling alerts to inform the users about certain risks concerning dangerous routes or harsh conditions; (3) and integrating augmented reality (AR) with dynamic viewshed (2D visibility) maps to navigate through the mountain environment. The combination of these state-of-the-art technologies furnishes great opportunities to overcome the distinctive mountainous geography. In this chapter, we explore the possibilities of an e-tourism application that implements the aforementioned solutions. In addition, by fitting the design and architecture of this application to the specific characteristics of Zagori, a general framework of e-tourism services oriented to mountainous areas is suggested.

Mountain destinations face many challenges from local displacement, harsh climatic conditions, or strong competition. Sustainable tourism development is therefore crucial to maintain the natural and cultural resources, which often are the main capital of mountain destinations. This study has been conducted to find out how destination management organizations (DMOs) operate in sustainable tourism. Results show that the DMOs do not perceive themselves as leaders but rather the political stakeholders and service providers. Furthermore, the perceived role of DMOs in the context of sustainable development does not fully match with the role they actually play today. The DMOs often are present in rather operational tasks, even though they say that a DMO should also undertake strategic tasks such as developing a sustainability strategy. Strategic tasks, which would help managing sustainable development in a more efficient way, are often neglected. A DMO looking for enhancement of sustainable tourism needs to undertake additional tasks and therefore has to create sufficient resources to go forward. Only DMOs taking on responsibility can sustainably develop their destinations in the long run.

The chapter presents the new concept of forest ecosystem protection in the Slovak Republic. The concept is based on the evaluation of the potential and real representative geoecosystems (REPGES). Geoecosystems are particular entities bearing elements of geoecodiversity: they represent a certain landscape–ecological unit. Individual types of the REPGES have been determined on the basis of zonal (bioclimatic) conditions, most often represented by the vegetation zones in landscape, and azonal conditions, primarily quaternary geologic ground and relief, secondary soils, and levels of underground water. In all, 120 types of the REPGES were determined in the Slovak Republic. They were evaluated on the base of their current state of maintenance, endangerment, and protection.

Under current global change conditions, invasive species show an increasing tendency to spread over larger areas in close relationship with their triggering environmental driving forces. Current research is seeking to assess the potential distribution of the invasive terrestrial plant species (ITPS) Ailanthus altissima in a natural protected area, the Măcin Mountains National Park (II IUCN category). The protected area is located in the southeastern part of Romania, sheltering a combination of Pontic, steppe, and well-preserved sub-Mediterranean and Balkan forest ecosystems. The authors propose a geographic GIS-based quantitative statistical analysis (potential distribution model, ITPS-PODISMOD) of A. altissima using bivariate analysis that takes into consideration the relationship between variables, such as A. altissima as the dependent variable and its driving factors as independent variables. Concurrently, each driving factor was ranked depending on the relationships between the analysed species and its ecological conditions. Thus, an ITPS-PODISMOD map displaying areas with different potential distribution of A. altissima in relationship to the key environmental driving factors has resulted.

Floods are among the most dangerous natural disasters that threaten large territories in Bulgaria. The assessment of flood risk provides valuable information for environmental management. An important part of this assessment is the determination of landscapes flood regulation capacity. The study area is a small basin in the upper valley of the Lom River. The capacities of the landscapes to regulate floods were assessed through investigations of water retention functions of different natural components. Features of vegetation, land use, soil, orohydrography, and relief were considered. Each feature influencing the landscape regulatory functions was given a weight coefficient. To achieve more precise assessment, we combined field methods and remote sensing. The MODIS NDVI 250 m Multi-Temporal Imagery Dataset for the period 2008–2014 and widely accepted indices such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index), and VCI (Vegetation Condition Index) were also applied. Thematic maps showing the regulating service capacity of each of the investigated components and that of the landscapes were generated, and a final assessment was made. In the study area, the natural landscapes of the Biosphere Reserve “Chuprene” and landscapes with different degrees of anthropogenic load occur as well. This work contributed the comparative characteristics of these two major landscape classes to be performed so that the main factors affecting their surface runoff regulation capacity could be determined.

A common approach of potential natural hazards assessment in mountain areas is presented in this chapter on the base of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) methods. The subjects include excess erosion, landslides, flash floods, and forest fires. For this purpose, Vlahina Mountain (Kadiitsa, 1932 m), covering 471.2 km² between the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria, was selected as a case study. This mountain border territory suffers from frequent and severe natural hazards that have high local impact on the environment, sociodemographic development, and the local economy. First, most relevant stable factors for each type of natural hazard were selected (topography, land cover, anthropogenic objects, infrastructure). Multi-layer calculation was performed based on available traditional equations, clustering and classifying procedures, using GIS and satellite images. In this way, suitable relatively “stabile” natural hazard maps were produced (modeled). Then, variable (mostly climate-related) factors are included in previous models correlated with different amounts of precipitation, temperature, wind direction, etc. Finally, the resulting GIS-based models were evaluated and tested with field verification and high-resolution Google Earth images. The verification of the models shows good accuracy. Further development of such GIS models is connected with situating of automatic remote meteorological stations and use of dynamic satellite imagery (such as MODIS), which will provide a timely warning of coming natural hazards and avoid potential damage.

The main objective of the report is to analyze the current status of ecological networks in the border region of Serbia and Bulgaria, illustrate the spatial extent of future NATURA 2000 ecological network in Serbia, and indicate the potential network linkages with the already existing NATURA 2000 sites in Bulgaria. The author’s participation in the verification and mapping of habitat types of NATURA 2000 sites in Bulgaria provoked his interest in their spatial configuration in the border regions, and so far consecutive studies have been carried out along the borders with Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Macedonia. Apart from analysis of relevant literary and electronic sources, comparative analysis between the Serbian model of establishing ecological networks and the experience of Bulgaria, and its Balkan neighbors, is also applied. Mapping as a method is used on one hand as an existing product, but also as a basis for a synthetic approach to derive new regularities and cartographic images. In the border area of Bulgaria there are 15 NATURA 2000 protected areas, of which 4 are under both Birds and Habitats Directives. The Emerald network of Serbia in the border area comprises 12 sites, and 5 more are proposed by a non-governmental organization. The enclosed specially developed schematic map of sites of ecological networks in the border area between Serbia and Bulgaria illustrates the spatial ecological gaps, and on that basis recommendations for the establishment or expansion of new sites are made.

The aim of the current research work is to identify invasive plant species and analyse their possible impact on the biodiversity of the territory of Mala Planina. Modern tendencies in the dynamics of vegetation are a result of long historical development under the influence of geologic, climatic, and soil factors and anthropogenic pressure. An invasive species is a plant or an animal that is not native to a specific location and has a tendency to spread, which is believed to cause damage to the environment or human economy and/or human death. Invasive species cause problems all around the world, including Mala Planina, which is a part of Western Stara Planina. It is important to differentiate the term invasive species from the term introduced species. Invasive plant species are capable of affecting the functional biodiversity of Mala Planina. Investigation of invasive species in the studied area has theoretical and practical importance. Robinia pseudoacacia and Ailanthus altissima are among the most common invasive species of the plant kingdom along the mountain range. Cameral and terrain research has been done. Remote methods are used to accomplish the aim of the current work.

In the last century and a half, average summer temperatures have slowly been rising worldwide. The most observable consequence of this is the change in glacier sizes. For monitoring glacier area and volume, various measuring techniques exist—from measurements with a measuring tape and geodetic measurements to remote sensing and photogrammetry. Many of these techniques were used to monitor very small glaciers in the Julian Alps through the twentieth century. At least eight very small glaciers existed in Julian Alps in the previous century. Since the second half of the twentieth century some have disappeared, but some still exist. In this chapter we focus on three small glaciers: two on Mount Canin (NE Italy) and one on Mount Triglav (NW Slovenia). We present the changes in glacier sizes since the end of the nineteenth century with the use of archived non-metrical images. The acquisition is based on interactive orientation method (mono-plotting) using detailed digital terrain models (DTM).

In the studied period, the Canin and Triglav glaciers behaved in a similar manner and also had similar sizes. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Western Canin Glacier covered 28 ha, the Eastern Canin Glacier 13 ha, and the Triglav Glacier 22 ha. By the mid-twentieth century, the glaciers had already broken up into several parts. The Western Canin Glacier covered 7.6 ha in 1957 and the Triglav Glacier covered 13.7 ha in 1958. In 2000, the eastern (largest) part of the Western Canin Glacier and the Triglav Glacier measured 5 ha and 1.1 ha respectively. Since then they have lost at least half their size.

The article highlights the usefulness of archival imagery for long-time monitoring of glaciers.

In Turkey, until the beginning of the 1990s, the coastal areas were the top destination for many people during their summer vacation. However, this preference has started to shift toward the mountain areas. Nowadays, mountainous regions of the Eastern Black Sea Region, especially the summer pastures, “Yayla (plural: Yaylalar)” have become popular vacation spots for domestic tourists. Highlands and summer pastures possess a rich natural and cultural heritage in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is promoting rural tourism in the region. With the expansion of the tourism industry, tourist activities have also gained momentum in some summer pastures, turning them into important tourism centers with increased tourism investments. This activity has also brought a rapid change in land use patterns and functions of summer pastures along with the lifestyle of the local people. This shift has resulted in positive changes such as development in the area on one hand and negative changes in environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural values on the other. Therefore, it is assumed that rural tourism (yayla tourism) and the protection of our cultural heritage have correlation in terms of conflict and mutual benefits.

Rudnik Mountain, as the most dominant mountain in the Šumadija region, is located about 100 km south of Belgrade, which is connected to Ibar highway. Because of its exceptional climatic conditions, in 1922 it was declared an air spa, and the geologic-geomorphological features (mountain peaks more than 1000 m above sea level, lookouts, caves, etc.), as well as the wealth of water and preserved flora and fauna, contributed to its excursion potential. Archaeological findings testify to early habitation of the area. In ancient times the mountain was the scene of mining, and remnants of the period before and after the arrival of the Romans, the Serbian medieval state, and Turkish times are preserved. The preserved cultural heritage (monasteries: Blagoveštenje, Voljavča, Vraćevšnica, Nikolje and Petkovica; the residence of Prince Miloš; the remains of medieval towns; Ostrvica and Gradovi; archaeological site Misa; remains of mining pits and localities; rich monumental complex, etc.) had a significant role in the development of mountain tourism in Rudnik Mountain in Serbia. Regionally recognizable as a year-round holiday destination with great potential for excursion, recreation, sports, health, and other forms of tourism development, Mountain Rudnik has, thanks to the rich cultural heritage, a chance for popularization through various forms of trips, excursions, schools in nature, recreational classes, and other programs of travel agencies intended for children and adults.