Mountains and Mountain Regions in Bulgaria - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 33

Chapter 4
Mountains and Mountain Regions in Bulgaria

Yulia Kroumova

Abstract The mountains in Bulgaria occupy almost half of its area (47.54%). The
geographical situation of the country, the present-day differentiation and variety of
the relief and its combination with the other natural components affect the economic
management of the mountain regions. This chapter provides a comparative analy-
sis of the changes in the mountain regions' territorial extension according to the
criteria, approved in recent years (before and after Bulgaria's accession to the EU).
According to the EU Regulations, the mountain regions are defined as unfavourable,
with limited capacities for land use and with higher costs for performing agricultural
activities. Among the groups of criteria, set in different normative documents and
projects, special attention is paid to the criterion above sea altitude .Themosaic
nature of relief and the great number of landscape types in Bulgaria require that the
complex impact of the physical-geographical factors should be taken into consider-
ation while determining the lower boundary of the mountain regions. In the research
work, however, in order to be in compliance with the aims of each investigation
and to achieve unbiased scientific results, we have to observe either the bound-
aries, already specified in the normative documents, or the physical-geographical
borders.

Keywords Mountain · Mountain regions · Morphometry · Sustainable development

4.1 Introduction

The mountain regions as areas with natural limitations for economic activities have
become the focus of research, aiming at efficient land use, sustainable economic
development and preservation of the ecosystems. The identification of their borders