Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
incised river valleys. Jakupitsa and Suva Gora have moderate slopes, with steep
sides but flattened karstified planes on top. The lowest mean slope has Galichica
mountain (only 17 ), as a result of very large flat top surface with many shallow
dolines, sinkholes, karst poljes, etc. on the central and northern parts. Overall, aver-
age slope of the high mountains in Macedonia is 20.9 , which is significantly higher
than the average slope of the country of 13.5 (Milevski, 2007 ). It is interesting to
stress out that the average slope of most mountains sharply increase with altitude up
to about 1,000 m, after which the slope values fluctuate between 15 and 25 (because
of morphological changes). On highest altitudes, slope trends decrease, especially
towards ridge and peak areas on the top.
Good slope indicator of the analysed mountains is LS (length-slope) factor,
which is slope angle multiplied by length of constant slope. From Table 6.3 it is
evident that the three highest mountains have the greatest LS values (34.8-32.0),
meaning long, steep slopes. Galichitsa has the lowest value because of the relatively
short, flat slopes on the large karstified top surface.
However, among the other, slopes directly or indirectly influence land-use pat-
tern. Data from Table 6.7 show that on smaller slopes (0-20 ), agricultural land
prevails, especially areas with complex crops. This is logical because agricultural
activities are much easily practised on lower slopes and in these ranges are most
of the population and rural settlements. On the contrary, forests are present on
higher slopes, with significant areas even above 30 . Normally, bare rocks, sparse
vegetation, etc. are present on all slopes with noteworthy percent above 30 .
Significant presence of agricultural land on slopes with values 10-20 or even
20-30 (formerly broad leaf forests), which are usually on altitudes below 1,000 m,
causes land degradation and soil erosion. With time, part of that land will be
abandoned and transferred to grasslands, pastures or bare rocks.
Table 6.7 CLC2000 land-use types (%) with respect to slope categories (degree)
P (km 2 )
Type \ slope
0-10
10-20
20-30
30-40
40-50
> 50
P (%)
Pastures
26.7
43.6
23.8
5.3
0.6
0.1
100.0
134.5
Annual crop
23.5
43.8
26.0
5.9
0.6
0.2
100.0
31.0
Complex crop
34.0
43.3
18.6
3.6
0.5
0.0
100.0
174.8
Land-agriculture
20.6
44.2
28.8
5.8
0.6
0.0
100.0
380.94
Agro-forestry
15.2
41.5
33.7
8.6
0.9
0.1
100.0
185.29
Broad leaf
8.5
31.6
37.6
18.2
3.6
0.5
100.0
3, 235.38
Coniferous
10.9
33.8
34.9
16.4
3.3
0.7
100.0
500.07
Mixed forests
12.0
34.6
33.3
15.4
3.8
1.0
100.0
461.68
Natural grassland
18.2
36.6
29.1
12.7
2.9
0.4
100.0
1, 082.94
Moors. heathland
17.3
34.4
31.0
14.0
2.8
0.5
100.0
321.25
Scleroph. veget.
19.3
36.9
27.8
12.8
2.7
0.6
100.0
283.59
Transitional
18.4
36.5
27.7
13.6
3.2
0.6
100.0
673.24
Beaches.
14.1
24.3
24.9
22.6
8.8
5.2
100.0
6.10
Bare rock
10.9
26.2
28.2
19.1
9.6
5.9
100.0
7.43
Sparsely
12.6
25.4
29.4
20.7
7.5
4.3
100.0
13.28
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search