International scientific conference on “Bioclimatology and natural hazards”

Abstract

Travelling to the Slovak Republic, one of the new (since 2004) member-states of the EU, was a very pleasant surprise. From the point of view of human and natural ecology, this country of about 49,000 km2 and 5.4 million inhabitants is constituted by two main regions: the Tatra Mountains (where the forest is the primary resource) and the lowlands of the Danube plain (a fertile farming region that produces wheat, barley, potatoes, sugar beet, fruit, tobacco and grapes)3. The capital, Bratislava (located close to the border with Austria and just over 50 km away from Wien and Hungary), is the main entrance point to this country. The International Conference on “Bioclimatology and Natural Hazards” took place on September 17-20, 2007, and was organized by the Faculty of Forestry of the Natural Environment Department, Technical University of Zvolen (the only faculty in Slovakia that provides advanced training in the field of wood processing). Zvolen itself is a very nice town of about 45,000 inhabitants located in central Slovakia, with a history of more than 760 years. Although the foundation of its Castle, known as the Deserted Castle, dates back to the 10th century, the rise to town status did not occur until 1243, when King Belo IV granted royal town privileges to Zvolen. The historical influence of the Hungarian empire is manifest in the current structure of the population of Zvolen: although more than 80% are Slovaks, 11% originate in that ethnic region. In the 19th century, L’udovit Stur became the first member of the Hungarian Parliament to represent Zvolen. He actively sought to advance the causes of the national liberation of the Slovaks, the recognition of the Slovak language and the granting of equal civil rights to the Slovak nation as a whole (http://eng.zvolen.eu). The aim of the conference was to “discuss exclusively recent research developments in the interactions between meteorological, climatological, hydrological and biological processes in both atmosphere and soil” (from the conference flyer). The plenary sessions took place in the building of the Technical University, whereas the remaining ones were