SPODNJEPOSAVSKA - Geography and history
Historic frontier
Spodnjeposavska is the second smallest region in Slovenia, situated in its south-eastern part where the Sava river, flowing from sub-Alpine mountains, enters the Pannonian Plain. In the east and south the region extends to the Croatian border. Before Slovenia gained its independence in 1991, most of the region was part of the wider metropolitan area of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
This is a transitional region between forested sub-Alpine mountains, reaching 1 023 m, where steep slopes can support only small villages and isolated farms, and a wider, cultivated plain at the confluence of the Sava, Krka and Sotla rivers where climatic, cultural and other influences from the Pannonian Plain are felt. A belt of low wine-growing hills separates these two regions.
The towns of Sevnica, Brestanica, Krško and Brezice were established in ancient times around medieval castles on an important traffic route along the Sava river connecting Central and South-Eastern Europe. The region's favourable position along this traffic route and its good traffic accessibility by road and railway are still an advantage, spurring border-related service activities after 1991 at two important road and railway border crossings.
The region is divided among the municipalities of Sevnica, Krško and Brezice, all established in 1955. The municipalities remained unchanged during the local self-governance reform (1994) after Slovenia's independence.
A historical peculiarity of the Spodnjeposavska region is the stable ethnic boundary between Croats and Slovenes, set on the Sotla river, which has not changed since the early Middle Ages and which was also the south-eastern border of the Habsburg Empire for centuries. This frontier has never represented an obstacle to cross-border economic cooperation which was especially reinforced after World War II when Zagreb developed into one of the most important economic centres of the former Yugoslavia. The Spodnjeposavska region - important as a source of workforce and electricity, as well as an attractive recreational area - became a part of Zagreb's catchment area. While the formation of a state border in 1991 interrupted some ties, such as the commuting of Slovene workers to Zagreb, new ones, such as trade activity along the border, were established.
Rival urban centres
The region is situated along the Ljubljana-Zagreb main railway and road and is easily accessible from central Slovenia as well as from neighbouring Croatia. The position along the state border is also favourable, resulting in a considerable number of jobs at border crossings.
Thanks to well developed service activities and differences in the economic structure of the three urban centres (Sevnica, Krško, Brezice), there is a variety of employment options, while local high schools provide an educated workforce with considerable employment possibilities in their home region. This became especially evident after 1991 when the influx from Croatia of immigrants and commuters with high-school or university education almost entirely dried up.
Due to the considerable distance from Ljubljana (110 km), Spodnjeposavska became rather peripheral when the state border was established, separating it from Zagreb. However, for the time being it does not face such serious difficulties as other Slovene border regions which have been affected by depopulation and declining economic activity.
More than in other Slovene regions, its further economic development depends on political and economic relations between Slovenia and Croatia and on the open border between the neighbouring countries, which entails some degree of uncertainty.
Apart from Koroška, Spodnjeposavska is the only region in Slovenia without a distinctive regional centre. Instead, there are two competing regional centres 12 km apart. The older one, Brezice, was built around a strategically important mediaeval castle. Its primacy was challenged by Krško due to its faster economic development after World War II and especially after the nuclear power plant was constructed in 1982. This dualism causes unnecessary duplication of some activities and slight tensions hindering communication within the region.
The Krško nuclear power plant is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is one of the most successful Slovene companies and an important employer for people with high school and university education. However, it represents a certain environmental burden since an appropriate site for a radioactive waste repository has not yet been found either in Slovenia or in Croatia, so waste has been accumulating in a temporary repository at the power plant.
Extensive water resources
The region covers 885 km2 (4.4% of Slovenia) and can be divided into four parts. Its northern and western parts consist of dissected sub-Alpine mountains with vast forests on steep slopes and modest agricultural possibilities. On the southern foothills of these mountains there is a 10 km-wide belt of low hills with vineyards and orchards on sunny slopes.
The Spodnjeposavska region has a continental climate with annual precipitation between 1 280 and 900 mm. The average annual temperature is 10.5(C while average monthly temperatures are between 0.2(C in January and 20.4(C in July.
The town of Sevnica (population 4 900) is situated in the Sava valley in the middle of this belt. The central part of the region is a plain (up to 10 km wide) along the Sava, Krka and Sotla rivers. This is the most densely populated part of the region with the most important agricultural areas. Both bigger towns - Krško (population 7 000) and Brezice (population 6 500) - are situated here. The Gorjanci range rises in the southern part of the region along the Croatian border. It is an almost completely uninhabited, densely forested karst area.
The main natural resources are fertile land and an abundance of water in the plain, together with forests in the mountains. In Senovo, a small coal mine has been extracting brown coal since 1839, however, it was shut down. Near Globoko there are unexploited lignite deposits, while quartz sand and gravel are extracted at several sites.
Among the three major rivers, the Krka and the Sotla are slow lowland rivers unsuitable for electricity production, while on the Sava a chain of hydroelectric power plants is planned, including five power plants in the Spodnjeposavska region. Construction of the first power plant (Boštanj) has started in the year 2002, whereas the whole project will last 15 years. The plain is very rich in groundwater found in gravel and loam sediments, supplying the majority of the local population with drinking water. The Catez thermal spa was developed to exploit abundant wells of naturally radioactive water with a temperature of up to 62.5 °C, pumped from a depth of approximately 300 m.
Two thirds of the plain are covered with arable fields and one third with meadows. Fields prevail on river terraces and at the foot of the hilly area, while meadows prevail in more humid areas and on floodplains along the rivers. More than half of the area of the region is covered with forest. Fields and meadows prevail on other gentle slopes. In the mountains, forests cover more than three-quarters of the area, the rest is covered with meadows which are being gradually overgrown due to the abandonment of agriculture.
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