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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Good

Data on GHG emissions from forest fires show a downward trend, which is, however, not statistically significant. In the long term, there is a major forest fire in Slovenia about every five years, so GHG emissions are relatively high in these years. The highest GHG emissions due to forest fires since we have been recording data were in 2003.

Neutral

In the last decades, major emissions of air pollutants from transport decreased. However, road transport remains one of the most significant sources of air pollution. In Slovenia in 2022 road transport contributed 43 % to the total emissions of nitrogen oxides. In the period 1990-2022 emissions of substances that cause acidification and emissions of ozone precursors in transport sector declined by 71 % and 76 %. In the period 2000-2022 emissions of particulate matter decreased by 51 %.

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.