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Many real-world spatially related problems, including river-basin planning and management, give rise to geographical information system based decision making, since the performance of spatial policy alternatives were traditionally and are still often represented by thematic maps. Advanced technologies and approaches, such as geographical information systems (GIS), offer a unique opportunity to tackle spatial problems traditionally associated with more efficient and effective data collection, analysis, and alternative evaluation. This paper discusses the advantages and challenges of the use of digital spatial data and geographical information systems in river basis management. Spatial data on social, environmental and other spatial conditions for the study area of 451.77 km2, the Slovenian part of the Sotla river basin, are used to study the GIS capabilities of supporting spatial decisions in the framework of river basin management.

This article is focused on finding problems in land use domain in the areas of protected natural and cultural heritage. In the paper, the influence of special regulation in the natural and cultural protected areas on land management is presented. The paper gives an overview on history of cultural heritage and nature protection initiatives in Slovenia and provides a review on basic EU and international initiatives, conventions in this field. For the case of Slovenian rural land market, it highlights the problem of complex institutional regulations relating to land management in the protected areas, which affect mostly local people. Here, the impact of the protected regimes, the case of pre-emption right, on land management and consequently spatial development in local communities is stressed, which is an important topic in particular in less developed regions since restriction of land use often means more complex, costly and time lasting procedures in land management and less opportunities as the consequence.