Case Studies from the Dinaric Karst of Slovenia

Geographical Position and General OverviewAndrej Mihevc, Mitja PrelovšekThe Dinaric karst is the major morphologicaltype of landscape of the Dinarsko gorovje(Dinaric mountains), extending over approximately60,000 km 2 and forming the largestcontinuous karst landscape in Europe.The Dinarsko gorovje are positioned betweenthe Panonian Basin in the northeastand the Adriatic Sea in the southwest, coveringan area over 650 km in length and over 150km wide (Fig. 1). In the north, they border theAlps along the rivers Soča, Idrijca and Dolejnskopodolje (Dolenjska lowland). The inner sideof the mountains is delimited by the river Savavalley. The eastern border of the mountains isin the Kolubara and Morava river basins, theedge of the Kosovo basin and the Prokletijemountains. The transition to the Alps in thenorthwest and the Albanian mountains towardthe southeast is not very distinctive.The Dinarsko gorovje are separated intodifferent natural belts. All have a commondirection (northwest-southeast; the Dinaricdirection), which is the direction of most ofthe relief features. The main geomorphologicdifferences of the mountains are defined bydifferences in lithology. Inland non-carbonaterocks on which fluvial relief has developed prevail.The main parts of the mountains, centralFig. 1: Delimitation of the Dinaric karst toward northeast after Roglić (1965) and after Gams (1974).6