Calculation of climate factors as an additional criteria to determine agriculturally less favoured areas

• Main Authors: Tjaša POGAČAR, Ajda VALHER, Mateja ZALAR, Zalika ČREPINŠEK, Lučka KAJFEŽ-BOGATAJ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty 2016-04-01
• Series: Acta Agriculturae Slovenica
• Subjects: območja z omejenimi možnostmi za kmetijsko dejavnost (OMD); rastna doba; vsota efektivnih temperatur; kazalec sušnosti AI; meteorološka vodna bilanca
• Online Access: http://ojs.aas.bf.uni-lj.si/index.php/AAS/article/view/135
• ISSN: 1581-9175; 1854-1941

Climate factors that are proposed to determine agriculturally less favoured areas (LFA) in Slovenia were analyzed for the period 1981–2010. Following the instructions of European Commission prepared by Joint Research Centre (JRC) 30-years averages of low air temperatures criteria (the vegetation period duration and sums of effective air temperatures) and aridity criteria (aridity index <em>AI</em>) have to be calculated. Calculations were additionally done using Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) method, which is slightly different when determining temperature thresholds. Only hilly areas are below the LFA low air temperatures threshold with the lowest located meteorological station in Rateče. According to aridity criteria no area in Slovenia is below the threshold, so meteorological water balance was also examined. Average water balance in the period 1981–2010 was in most of locations lower than in the period 1971–2000. Climate change impacts are already expressed as trend presence in time series of studied variables, so it is recommended to calculate trends and take them into account or to perform regular iterations of calculations.