KAZALCI OKOLJA

Environmental indicators in Slovenia


Environmental indicators are based on graphs, maps and assessments and as such present environmental trends in Slovenia. The indicators represent one of the four pillars of our environmental reporting, and are prepared in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act. The Environmental Indicators in Slovenia website enables users to browse among 180 indicators. They are based on numerical data and they indicate the state, characteristics and trends of environmental development in Slovenia. They are prepared using a systematic approach based on data and monitoring, as shown in the information pyramid.

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Neutral

The above-average runoff years of 2013 and 2014 were followed by a below-average year in 2015 and a period of average annual runoff from 2016 to 2021. In 2022, runoff levels were again below average, while 2023 saw a return to above-average conditions. Based on the annual river balance, 2023 ranks among the wettest years in the history of hydrological measurements. Between 1961 and 2023, the most water-abundant years were 2013, 2014, and 2023. In contrast, the driest years were 1983, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2022.

Bad

In Slovenia, the volume of passenger transport demand has been increasing over the past few decades. Particularly, the volume of one of the most environmentally burdensome modes of transport – car transportation – has been growing. Its share places Slovenia in an unenviable third place among EU member states where residents rely most heavily on private cars for their journeys. Until the pandemic, the volume of the most environmentally damaging mode of transport, air travel, was also growing rapidly.

Good

In the period 1992–2023 nitrogen surplus in Slovenian agriculture decreased. Trend analysis for this period shows that gross nitrogen surplus decreased on average by 1.4 kg N/ha per year or by 54%, and the net surplus by 1.2 kg N/ha per year or by 85%. The lower surplus was mainly due to a 43% increase in nitrogen removal by crops and a 6% decrease in nitrogen input per hectare of utilized agricultural area. A lower excess of nitrogen indicates better nitrogen management in agriculture and consequently a reduction in emissions of nitrogen compounds into the environment.

Neutral
Air

The emission of primary particles, smaller than 10 µm (PM10), particles smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) and all total suspended particles (TSP) have decreased in the period 2000-2022 in Slovenia by 23 %, 33 % and 8 %. The main source of emissions of particulate matter are households, mainly due to use of biomass for domestic heating.

Bad

The frequency of agricultural drought in Slovenia has been increasing in recent decades. Since year 2000, natural disaster due to drought was declared seven times in Slovenia, the most severe of which occurred in 2003, 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2022. Drought keeps occurring with increasing intensity and in areas and seasons where there have not been problems in the past. An additional risk for drought damage in agriculture present rapidly developing droughts in summer (so-called "flash droughts"), which occur during heat waves.

Neutral

2024 was the second consecutive year with above-average water abundance, with no surface water drought observed in any season. However, over the past twenty years, hydrological droughts of surface waters have become both more frequent and more intense compared to previous periods, with greater variability between individual years. Very dry and very wet years now alternate with periods of hydrologically normal conditions. The drought intensity during the growing season has become more frequent, though it has been less severe in the past decade than in the previous one.