Areas Exposed to Inundations in the Upper Savinja Valley

Abstract

The study deals with the geography of the inundation areas in the river basin of the upper Savinja. The character of this Alpine and Lower Alpine region with its powerful relief energy and torrential waters offers no conditions for the formation of the typical inundation areas in spite of the comparatively considerable frequency of floods in the Gornji Grad basin. After a few hours already the water recedes completely from the inundated areas back into the riverbeds. These waters have a great destructive power. The study gives a detailed description of the inundation areas; it analyzes the floods that occurred during the period 1959—1973. It pays special attention to those factors that slow down or speed up waters brought by precipitations. It gives a numeric survey of water driven plants (sawmills, mills for grinding grain, etc.) in the past and at present. The study ends with a larger chapter under the title “The Inundation Area and the Man”.