Natural disasters reflected in geographical names

Geographical names are the proper names of settlements, parts of the Earth’s surface and objects on it. Their charac­teristic is to uniquely identify and individualise the named object. They are part of intangible cultural heritage, which communities, groups as well as individuals pass on from one generation to another and perpetually reproduce in response to their environment, nature and history. In the recent years they have become an important environmental indicator to monitor various environmental processes, including natural hazards and disasters. This paper focuses on choronyms in the area of Western Karavanke Mountains and western Kamnik–Savinja Alps (N to NW Slovenia). On the basis of five cartographic sources from the end of the 18th century until today we examined choronyms, the creation of which was motivated by natural hazards and disasters.