Relation between relief and Badland spatial distribution in the Paleogene Pazin Basin, Croatia

Abstract

Badlands are specific landforms characterized by intense denudation processes. Their occurrence is mainly associated with clay-like materials and semi-arid and Mediterranean climates. This study presents the badland inventory for the Paleogene Pazin Basin located on the Istrian peninsula in Croatia. A total of 5,381 badland polygons, with a total area of 10.25 km2, were manually outlined, based on the visual interpretation of orthophotos at a scale of 1:5,000. The badlands in Istria are represented as small and isolated landforms and are exclusively associated with flysch and flysch-like materials, which cover a significant part of the study area (46%). The analysis of badland inventory shows that badlands are spatially not equally distributed but that their abundance is increasing from NW to SE part of the analyzed area. Additionally, the results of the spatial analysis indicate the positive relationship between badland occurrence and relative relief, which is presented via the relief-badland index.