Regional application of the Gross National Happiness Index in the context of the quality of life in Slovakia The paper aims to apply the regional application of the Gross National Happiness Index (GNH Index) in the regions of Slovakia. The GNH Index, using the set of nine domains and several indicators within them, primarily aims to assess the comfort of inhabitants and their subjective happiness in the broader context of the quality of life concept. It points at the fact that the overall prosperity and development in the regions cannot be looked at only from the perspective of economic growth, using the gross domestic product as the most important economic indicator. Moreover, it should be approached in a more complex way. The original methodology of the GNH Index used in Bhutan was adapted to the conditions of Slovakia and its regions. The resulting values of the observed index were confronted, in the interregional comparison, with the values of the regional GDP using the Gini coefficient and coefficient of variation as the basic statistic measures of the assessment.

Presented paper deals with the issues of regional development and regional disparities in Slovakia in the years 2001-2014. Levelling respectively increase of regional disparities was evaluated through a set of 13 socioeconomic indicators (gross birth rate, average monthly wage, monthly labour costs per employee, employment rate, unemployment rate, net monthly income and expenses per capita, completed dwellings, creation of GDP, labour productivity per employee in industry and construction, number of organizations focused on generating profit and number of freelancers) which were used in the territorial units at the level of self-governing regions of the Slovak Republic (NUTS III level). In terms of the evaluation and comparison of regional disparities were used the Gini coefficient and the coefficient of variation for mutual comparison and validation of divergent or convergent tendencies of regional disparities in Slovakia.

The paper focuses on the evaluation of some aspects of the spatial organization of economic development of regions in the V4 countries after their accession to the EU. It focuses on the confirmation or confutation of the application of two principles of spatial organization based on the context of polarization theories, namely the polarity between western and eastern regions (i.e. the West–East gradient) and the polarity between the capital and other regions of the country (i.e. the national metropolitan gradient) at national and supranational levels. In the evaluation of the spatial polarity, the remoteness of various regions of the V4 countries from the economic core area (the Blue Banana, respectively the capital of the country) acts as the independent variable, whereby two economic indicators, i.e. the average monthly wage and the unemployment rate were chosen as the dependent variables. The analysis showed that on the supranational scale of the research in the monitored period, the increase of spatial polarisation was recorded. The increasing role of the West–East gradient and declining role of the national metropolitan gradient in the dynamics of spatial polarity has also been confirmed. The analysis has not confirmed the scale shift of polarity according to the West–East gradient to the national level, but at the same time it has pointed out the significant influence of the national metropolitan gradient in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary at this assessment level.

Caves represent natural phenomena that have been used by man since ancient times, first as a refuge and dwelling, and later as objects of research and tourism. In the karst landscape of Slovak Republic in Central Europe, more than 7000 caves are registered in a relatively small area, of which 18 are open to the public. This paper deals with the analysis of the speleotourism potential of 12 of these caves, administered by the Slovak Caves Administration. Based on the obtained data, we first evaluate the number of visitors in 2010–2019. Using a public opinion survey among visitors, we then evaluate the individual indicators of quality and each cave’s resulting potential. We use a modified standardization methodology and standardization of individual evaluation criteria weights for individual evaluation indicators. The resulting values of the potential of caves for speleotourism point to the great importance of these sites for domestic and foreign tourism and the protection of nature and landscape, as 5 of these caves have been part of the UNESCO World Natural and Cultural Heritage List since 1995.

The article presents the results of measurements of magnetic properties of samples spolic technosols (alcalic/hyperartefactic) form the landfill of black nickel mud at Sered’, Slovakia. We measured the dependence of magnetic moment as a function of temperatures (240-340 K) and applied magnetic fields up to 7.2 MA/m (90 kOe). We observed at room temperature the tendency to saturation of magnetic moment. The temperature dependences showed possible ferromagnetic behaviour.