BGS and the Contemporary Progress of the Geographical Science Towards Smart Geography

Abstract

Starting with an overview of the first Bulgarian geographical studies and publications, the paper presents the development of the process of collection and interpretation of geographical knowledge for Bulgaria from different Bulgarian sources for centuries in the past to nowadays. As a classical discipline, geography goes through the time adding new discoveries, methods and applications. Becoming more and more open to other scientific disciplines, geography shows its incredible ability to gain and provide new knowledge and to answer some of the most important scientific challenges. In Bulgaria, there are several leading scientific institutions which work persistently from the beginning of the twentieth century to develop the geographical science and higher education: Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski”, Institute of Geography at Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS), now Department of „Geography” at the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography—BAS, „Konstantin Preslavski” University of Shumen, „St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo and South-West University „Neofit Rilski” of Blagoevgrad. The geographical units in each one of them have its specificity, achievements and research priorities, but all of them actually build the fundament of geography in Bulgaria. That is why we discuss in this paper their history, their contribution to the geography of Bulgaria and their current way to the future of smart geography. The Bulgarian Geographical Society (BGS) plays an important role in the last 100 years to keep all Bulgarian geographers in line with the most actual problems of the geographical science and education. In this paper we also show which historical periods of the Society were the most successful, and why and how it has changed and influenced Bulgarian geographers during the last few years.