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Vinodol Valley, situated in western Croatia in the Primorsko-Goranska County, represents an area of wide range of different landform types, each characterized by specific processes and materials which create them. Necessity of study of geological hazards in the Vinodol Valley arises from the continual direct damaging impact of different hazardous processes on public roads and private material properties. Sliding and erosion processes thus cause great economic losses for the local government and residents. Study of past and recent hazardous processes in the Vinodol Valley has been conducting with the aim to create susceptibility and hazard maps depicting potential for all processes causing slope instabilities. In this respect, the essential step for reliable landslide susceptibility assessment is to select an appropriate terrain subdivision, i.e., creating individual mapping units based on the certain criteria (Van den Eeckhaut et al., 2009). Delineated mapping unit thus represents a homogeneous portion of the land surface characterized by a set of ground conditions that differ the unit from the adjacent ones across definable, closed boundary (Evans, I., 2012). Methodology of research of hazardous processes in the Vinodol Valley is based on the geomorphological approach which implies delineation of geomorphological units on the basis of identification of topographical landform characteristics, materials which create them and its past and recent landslide and erosion processes and phenomena. Current study of the Vinodol Valley presents extension of the preliminary investigations of landforms and geomorphological processes at the area of Dubračina River Basin, where different geomorphological units were outlined characterized by typical types of landslides and erosion phenomena (Bernat et al., 2014). Dubračina River Basin of 43, 5 km2 covers nearly the half of the territory of the Vinodol Valley, i.e., its northwestern and central part. Vinodol Valley, with its length of approximately 22 km and maximum width of 4 km, has pronouncedly elongated shape and characteristically asymmetrical cross section in which the prominence of longer northeastern and shorter southwestern slopes is present. Moreover, three different geomorphological zones exist along the valley. The first zone extends from the Križišće settlement in the northwestern part to the Janjevalj and Pećca setllements in the southeastern direction. The length of this zone is approximately 7, 5 km and the width ranges from 950 m to 3, 50 km. The second zone, with length of about 6, 5 km and maximum width of 4 km, extends from Janjevalj and Pećca settlements to the Saftići and Kričina settlements. The third zone is characterized by mostly uniform width of about 2 km and extends from Saftići and Kričina settlements to the city of Novi Vinodolski situated at the sea coast at the end of the valley. For identification of geomorphological units and hazardous processes in the Vinodol Valley high resolution airborne LiDAR-derived imagery of resolution 1 x 1 m was primarily used. Visual interpretation was undertaken to identify all the types of sliding processes and sliding and erosion phenomena. Field investigations were conducted to identify the types of materials of which the area of Vinodol Valley was built and to additionally identify sliding phenomena which were recognized with uncertainty on the LiDAR-derived imagery. The criteria adopted for identification of specific geomorphological unit were morphological characteristics and internal relief, types of material defined by lithology of base rock mass and superficial deposits, and types of identified geomorphological processes and phenomena. Identified processes causing slope instabilities in the Vinodol Valley can be generally categorised into two main groups: erosion and sliding processes. Among erosion phenomena planar erosion, gully erosion and excessive erosion can differ. Identified sliding phenomena encompass rock falls, topples, landslides, mud flows and instabilities in scree deposits. Features of historical debris flow were also identified. In the paper types and spatial extent of all types of hazardous phenomena per geomorphological unit type were analysed together with possibilities of visual identification of the phenomena from high-fidelity DEM.

This article deals with landslide geomorphology, which should be placed alongside fluvial, tectonic, karst, coast, or slope geomorphology. Slovenia is used as an example to present landslide susceptibility mapping and the relative landslide rate, which was used to quantify the relative role of landslides in recent relief development in comparison to other fluvio-denudational or erosion processes. Landslides are a geographical constant in certain areas, and in the past some researchers have also used expressions such as landslideprone region for certain regions of Slovenia. The last section deals with geographers’ role in landslide hazard research, which consists of several activities, although map-making remains the fundamental skill applied by geomorphologists. Methods of landslide hazard assessment are also discussed., Rad se bavi geomorfologijom klizišta, koja bi se trebala svrstati uz fluvijalnu, kršku, obalnu, padinsku ili strukturnu geomorfologiju. Slovenija je uzeta kao primjer kako bi se predstavilo kartiranje vjerojatnosti pojave klizišta i kako bi se odredio relativni udio procesa klizanja u ukupnom intenzitetu denudacije što zapravo služi pri kvantificiranju relativne uloge klizišta u recentnom razvoju reljefa u usporedbi s drugim fluviodenudacijskim I erozijskim procesima. Klizišta su geografska konstanta u određenim područjima te su u prošlosti za neke regije u Sloveniji upotrebljavani i termini poput regije podložne klizanju. Zadnji dio rada bavi se ulogom geografa u istraživanju rizika od klizišta, koja se sastoji od niza aktivnosti, no osnovna je vještina koju primjenjuju geomorfolozi i dalje izrada karata. Raspravlja se i o metodama procjene rizika od klizišta.

This paper deals with some human geomorphological aspects concerning the impact in the alpine area of the Southern Carpathians (Transylvanian Alps). After fi eld investigations and taking into account the major effects of road building, military and mining activities, pasture and tourism activities in the geomorphological landscape we have the possibilities to present a distinct image of some relevant detailed situations. In our opinion the building of roads in the alpine area is by far the most dangerous way of intervention in the geomorphological landscape of the alpine area of the Southern Carpathians. The construction of these roads has altered the profi le of the slope and new scarps have appeared. This situation associated with the vibrations induced by the traffi c favours frost weathering, rock falling and rolling, coupled with the emergence of specifi c deposits and landforms (talus cones and scree) and, of course, with vertical and gully erosion, which is very typical of the area of soft rocks and soils., U članku se analiziraju geomorfološki aspekti antropogenog utjecaja u planinskom području Južnih Karpata (Transilvanske Alpe). Nakon terenskih istraživanja i razmatranja glavnih učinaka gradnje prometnica, vojnih i rudarskih djelatnosti, stočarstva i turizma u krajoliku, iscrpno su opisani konkretni slučajevi. Prema autorovu mišljenju, gradnja prometnica u planinskim područjima daleko je najopasnija intervencija za planinski geomorfološki krajolik Južnih Karpata. Ona je izmijenila profi l padina i stvorila nove strmce. Takvo stanje, povezano s vibracijama od prometa, mehaničkim trošenjem stijena, osipanjem i odronima na padinama, dovelo je do akumulacije specifi čnih taloga i nastanka reljefnih oblika te pojačane erozije tipične za područja mekog tla i stijena.