Jerzy Bański – The work of art as a source of knowledge in geographical studies

Art is a sphere of human activity whose scope in terms of subject matter and topics is very wide. This makes it hard to define – to the extent that there is no one, generally- accepted definition of art, only a very great many attempts at definitions, most of them needing modification as time has passed and new spheres of art have come into being. If art is hard to define then so also must be “work of art”, matters becoming still more complicated by the appearance in the theories of culture of the concept of the “artistic subject” whose connotations have features in common with the above.

Stefan Karastoyanov, Nikolai Popov – Specificity and characteristic features of political-geographical and cultural-geographical space of the Balkan countries

Undoubtedly, in the conditions of dynamic socio-economic changes and restructuring of the cultural-political space, which are comparable only to those at the end of World War I and World War II, there is a strong necessity of political-geographical and cultural-geographical research. Such investigations are badly needed in the Balkan countries as well. The specificity and peculiarities of the cultural-political processes in the region, part of which is our country, best illustrate the significance of the geographical (spatial) factor.

Angel Velchev, Spasimir Tonkov, Elisaveta Bozilova – Palaeogeomorphological and palaeoecological development of the Northwestern Rila mountains during the pleistocene and Holocene

In this paper are discussed some new views on the development of the Quaternary environments in the highest parts of the northwestern Rila Mountains. The global changes during the Pleistocene and Holocene which caused several glaciations, the formation of loess fragments and outwash plain in the Govedartzi valley, climate fluctuations, vegetation changes and subsequent anthropogenic impact, are proved by palaeogeomorphological and palaeoecological data. Geomorphological evidence is presented for two types of glaciation – mountain valley and ice-cap from the last three glacial epochs. The Würmian glacier which covered part of the cirque has reshaped the highest and deepest lakes. Rock glaciers existed during the Younger Dryas stadial of the Lateglacial and in the early Holocene. The process of sedimentation in Lake Sedmo Rilsko led to fluctuations in the content of the heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Pb , Mn) in the course of the last 7000 years, most probably caused by climate changes and increased anthropogenic activities. The changes in the hydrochemical indices of Lake Sedmo Rilsko throughout the Holocene resulted from climate and bioproductivity fluctuations,dynamic vegetation changes and erosion processes.

Margarita Stancheva, Viorel George Ungureanu, Adrian Stanica, Glisherie Caraivan, Atanas Palazov, Hristo Stanchev, Veselin Peychev – State-of-the-art geomorphical coastline classifications: global studies and regional research along the Bulgarian-Romanian Black Sea Coast

The present study is carried out within the framework of a joint Bulgarian- Romanian research project between Institute of Oceanology (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) and National Institute for Research and Development for Marine Geology and Geo-ecology (GeoEcoMar). The project has been run since 2010 and focused to generation of a common GIS-based coastline geomorphic classification (NSF- MEYS -grant No: DNTS 02/11 in Bulgaria and MEYS – 449-CB and 32130 in Romania).

Rumiana Vatseva, Ventzeslav Dimitrov, Jinming Sha, Xiaomei Li, Stoyan Netkov – Change detection of land use and land cover in coastal zones of China (Fujian) and Bulgaria using multitemporal and multiscale remote sensing data

Land use and land cover change detection is a substantial process in monitoring and managing natural resources and urban development, as well as is central to the interests of the science of global environmental change. Up-to-date land cover information is of crucial importance to scientists, resource managers, and decision makers. Remote sensing is a powerful tool to provide land cover data with high temporal and spatial accuracy.

Key words: Coastal zone, Land use, Land cover, Change Detection, Remote Sensing, GIS

Rumen Penin, Dimitar Zhelev – Ecogeochemical research in the soils in Sazliyka river basin

In this article, results of landscape-geochemical research of a part of the Sazli- yka river basin (during the 2010 sumer) are published, summarized and interpreted. The river is a left Maritza tributary .The investigated area includes landscapes of Sarnena Sredna gora (mountain) and Starozagorsko pole (plain) that are well used for economic purposes and are significantly affected by human activities. The mentioned research area is characterized by complicated environmental situation as a result of the cumulative effect provided by plenty of influences – vast urban territory (city of Stara Zagora), well developed industry, multifunctional transport infrastructure (railway, motorway, roads, pipelines, electricity network), intensive agribusiness, cross territorial impact (as examples can be recognized the ‘Maritza Iztok Complex’ – the largest energy complex in Bulgaria, and the military testing ground ‘Zmeyovo’ – both of them with crucial impact in the past decades). This perplexing environmental status requires a necessity of an optimized and modern monitoring network. The research area has been detached applying the basin approach concept.

The specified research tasks have been related to the estimation of background concentrations (and anomalies) of heavy metals in the local soils (there is related research by the authors concerning the river sediments in the same basin). The samples have been collected from different by genesis, geographical distribution and human impact soils, therefore, a full representation of the research area has been achieved.

The initial treatment and geochemical analysis of the samples have been done in the laboratory of the Faculty of Geology and Geography, Sofia University ‘St. Klement Ohridski’. The chemical analysis has been implemented with the method of atomic absorption spectrophotometry using the spectrophotometer Perkin Elmer 3030. The concentration rates of the elements Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, Ni, Co, Cr and Cd have been fixed.

An attempt to estimate the technogenic impact over the soil component of the landscapes as a crucial and most informative natural ‘centre’ has been done. The soil samples have been collected from control (background) locations that are not seriously affected by economic activities on the one hand, and from locations close situated to objects with significant impact – the city landfill, Trakia motorway, agricultural lands; on the other hand. In this article, they are implemented map schemes, data tables and geochemical spectrums all visualizing the research outcomes and particular results. A scientific interest should be attracted by the pre-monitoring data obtained across the new-built sector of Trakia motorway localized in the area.

The accomplished research and its results have been contributed to the organi- zation of landscape-geochemical monitoring (concentration of heavy metals in the soils) in Republic of Bulgaria and Europe. Some negative geochemical impact has been registered over the agricultural lands.

Key words: ecogeochemistry, landscape-geochemistry, soil, heavy metals, geo- chemical background, Sazliyka river basin, technogenic impac

Rumen Penin, Dimitar Zhelev – Ecogeochemical research in the bottom sediments in the Sazliyka river basin

In this article, results of landscape-geochemical research of a part of the Sazli- yka river basin (during the 2010 summer) are published, summarized and interpreted. The river is a left Maritza tributary. The investigated area includes landscapes of Sarnena Sredna gora (mountain) and Starozagorsko pole (plain) that are well used for economic purposes and are significantly affected by human activities. Geochemical processes in the catchments triggered by human impact are measured by pace, not with geological but with historical time. They themselves lead to drastic, sensible changes in the geochemical environmental parameters. The research area has been detached applying the basin approach concept.

The specified research tasks have been related to the estimation of background concentrations (and anomalies) of concentrated heavy metals in the bottom (river) sediments in the area (there is related research by the authors concerning the soils in the same basin). In order to be achieved optimal results, there is a necessity of complex investigation of aqua landscapes, not only along the main river stream but also along the tributaries and their mouths; the influence of local technogenic objects as well as an additional landscape-geochemical study of the basin territories. The samples have been collected along the Sazliyka’s main stream, its left tributaries – Bedechka and Azmaka, and the draining city channels of Stara Zagora.

The initial treatment and geochemical analysis of the samples have been done in the laboratory of the Faculty of Geology and Geography, Sofia University ‘St. Klement Ohridski’. The chemical analysis has been implemented with the method of atomic absorption spectrophotometry using the spectrophotometer Perkin Elmer 3030. The concentration rates of the elements Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, Ni, Co, Cr and Cd have been fixed.

An attempt to estimate the technogenic impact over the bottom sediments as a crucial and informative ‘centre’ of the natural aqua complexes has been done. In this article, there are implemented map schemes, data tables and geochemical spectrums visualizing research outcomes and particular results.

A scientific interest should be attracted by the realized attempt for estimation of the geochemical dynamics in the bottom sediments for 20 years long period for a part of the area.

The results can be successfully implemented in the landscape-geochemical monitoring of the bottom sediments for these microelements in Republic of Bulgaria and Europe. Some negative antropogenic impact has been registered in some parts of the river streams.

Key words: ecogeochemistry, landscape-geochemistry, bottom sediments, heavy metals, geochemical background, Sazliyka river basin, human impact.

Kristina Gartsiynova – Organic pollution of Vit and Osam rivers

The main goal of this article is to reveal trends of water quality changes by indicators of organic pollution of surface waters in the Vit and Osam rivers, the main pollutants in the catchments area and changes in the quality of river waters along the streams – from springs to outfalls. For that purpose the rivers were tested through organic characteristics – dissolved oxygen, BOD5 and permanganate oxidation over the period 1990-2008.

Vanya Vassileva – Tourism development in urban space

Promoting tourism in urban areas has been a question of interest in the last decades. Despite this, it is still a poorly studied matter, especially in Bulgaria. This work does not cover all the aspects of the problem. It gives an opinion on the stages for promoting tourism in urban areas and the types of tourism appropriate for cities. It determines the following 5 stages:

– establishment of places, facilities and objects for recreation and amusement for the local population

– attraction of tourists coming from other towns, predominantly neighbouring ones

– improvement of conditions and increase in capacity of the existing recreation places, beauty spots and facilities

– organization of regular and incidental events targeted at the attraction of extra tourists

– development of towns that have tourist functions in various spheres depending on the influence of different factors

It lists 14 main types of tourism, that are appropriate for urban areas, such as cultural and cognitive tourism, commercial and cognitive tourism, festival tourism, religious tourism, business tourism, gambling tourism, entertainment tourism in theme parks, entertainment tourism in places for amusement, shopping tourism, sports tourism, culinary tourism, etc.

Key words: tourism development, urban space

Boyan Manev, Keti Oreshkova – 100th anniversary of prof. dr. Lubomir Antonov Dinev-Kartografov (1911-1986)

Ilia Iliev, Margaritа Ilieva – 85th anniversary of assoc. prof. Radka Naidenova (1926-1999)

Margaritа Ilieva – 70th anniversary of assoc. prof. Anton Dinev (1941-1991)