Three Iberian mountain ranges encompassed glaciers during the Little Ice Age (LIA):the Pyrenees, Cantabrian Mountains, and Sierra Nevada. The gradual warming trend initiated during the second half of the 19th century promoted the progressive shrinking of these glaciers, which completely melted during the first half of the 20th century in the Cantabrian mountains and Sierra Nevada and reduced by 80% of their LIA extent in the Pyrenees. In these formerly glaciated environments, the transition between glacial and periglacial conditions results in an accelerated paraglacial readjustment, with very active geomorphic processes. Cirque walls generate a large amount of sediments through rock-falls and slides. LIA moraines, devoid of vegetation and composed of highly unstable sediments, are being intensely mobilized by slope processes. Inside the moraines, the shrinking of LIA glaciers favoured the development of buried ice patches, with permafrost-related landforms, small periglacial features generated by solifluction, and cryoturbation processes and remarkable hydrological changes. Present-day morphodynamics is mostly related to seasonal frost, though patches of permafrost have formed in contact with the buried ice, undergoing a process of degradation because it is not balanced with present-day climate. This is reflected in the occurrence of multiple collapses and subsidence of the debris cover where the frozen bodies sit. Next to the small glaciated environments in the highest Pyrenean massifs, there is a permafrost belt undergoing also rapid geomorphic changes. Based on the observed processes, we discuss spatio-temporal patterns of paraglacial readjustment in Iberian mountains and compare it with other midlatitude mountain environments.
The transition from state-socialism to capitalism has not been the only process reshaping the urban landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe but some cities were aff ected by war destructions, like in the Caucus region or in the former Yugoslavia. The case study of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is helpful to understand how the urban transformation is performed in postwar contexts, an arena neglected in the current literature on post-socialist cities. This paper aims at exploring the interplay between postsocialist urban restructuring and the peace-building process. It presents results of a series of fi eldworks conducted in Sarajevo in 2010 and 2013. It is argued that in spite of the liberal policies implemented by the international community and the belated physical renewal, the transition from socialism to capitalism has been continuously undermined by the local power reconfi guration carried out during the war. The paper analyses the restructuring policies of the postwar period and its impact on the urban spatial structure. The fi rst two sections focus on the urban restructuring processes of post-socialist cities also in postwar contexts, in which the nature of the internationally-led reconstruction and peace-building is analysed as diff erential processes. Finally, both processes are considered in the case of Sarajevo in relation to the transformation of its urban structure.
Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is located in a karst geomorphological environment. The topographical setting strongly influences the urban geographical distribution and urban development, as well as the sustainability policies implemented in the city. The incorporation of an environmental agenda and the focus on sustainable development have characterised urban planning in cities in Central and Eastern Europe that are transitioning from socialist to capitalist economic systems. Environmental policies in Sarajevo are defined within the Sarajevo Canton Development Strategy developed under the supervision of international experts at the end of the three-and-a-half years of siege in December 1995, and this is expected to last until 2015. This paper argues that, despite the consensus achieved for developing Sarajevo through strategies aligned with European regulations for sustainability, the built environment of the city has moved in an increasingly unsustainable direction as a result of the need to deal with vulnerable groups in the population and the international policies that tend to promote a neoliberal urban development. The first section of analysis focuses on Sarajevo's existing particular geomorphological constraints on the development of a secure and sustainable built environment. The second section examines the increase in the geomorphological risks of new construction developed after the conflict in relation to the post-war and post-socialist urban processes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.