The focus of this study is to integrate the DEX (Decision EXpert) decision-modeling method in architectural and urban design (A & UD) competitions. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of integrating the DEX (Decision EXpert) decision-modeling method into the evaluation process of A & UD competitions to enhance decision-making transparency, objectivity, and efficiency. By using symbolic values in decision models, the approach offers a more user-friendly alternative to the conventional jury decision-making process. The practical application of the DEX method is demonstrated in the Rhinoceros 3D environment to show its effectiveness in evaluating A & UD competition project solutions related to the development of the smart city. The results indicate that the DEX method, with its hierarchical and symbolic values, significantly improves the simplicity of the evaluation process in A & UD competitions, aligning it with the objectives of the smart cities. This method provides an efficient, accessible, and viable alternative to other multi-criteria decision-making approaches. This study importantly contributes to the field of architectural decision making by merging qualitative multi-criteria decision models into the CAD environment, thus supporting more informed, objective, and transparent decision-making processes in the planning and development of smart cities.

Slovenia is a country of exceptionally diverse landscapes at the intersection of four major European macroregions: the Alpine, Pannonian, Dinaric, and Mediterranean regions. Terraces, which are a characteristic Mediterranean landscape element, occur in all landscape types, but they vary in terms of density, purpose, and current function. Terraces, which define the most characteristic terraced landscape, are most common in the Mediterranean environment. However, they are also common in Karst-Dinaric landscapes and the wine-growing Pannonian hills, but are more unusual in mountainous Alpine regions, where they occur especially in transition areas to Mediterranean landscapes. Different types of terraces are defined by their purposes: agricultural, viticultural, and fruit-growing. The first type is found across Slovenia, whereas the second and third types are found in hills with favorable climates for cultivating grapes and fruit trees. Agricultural terraces are older; with the declining role of agriculture, increased social mobility, and an ageing and insufficient agricultural workforce, these terraces have lost their former role and their former fields are now almost entirely replaced by meadows. With the exception of the Mediterranean region and some of the Dinaric regions, wine-growing terraces and the less common fruit-growing terraces are the product of modern, mechanized farming, and a different understanding of the quality of vineyard production. This requires greater separation between rows to allow the use of farm machinery between grapevines set further apart.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) recognizes the exchange of waste resources and by-products between companies that do not normally cooperate in resource exchange; on the other hand, urban symbiosis (UrS) recognizes the use of solid waste in cities as input sources for industries that do not normally accept these sources. It is difficult to realize both in a pre-planned process, and there are few successful initiatives based on the exchange of waste and energy. The main objective of this research is to find out whether there are urban strategies that support the emergence, existence and development of IS and/or UrS in Slovenia. National documents, networks, projects, programs, and national statistical sources were examined. The Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategies (ISUSD) for eleven cities and municipalities were reviewed against ten selected indicators. The main findings are that there is intense awareness raising on IS and UrS, and adequate overall legislative support, aligned with EU legislation. Nevertheless, there has been surprisingly less waste conversion to energy recovery since 2010. The reuse of by-products either for energy or new products is non-existent or negligible. Selected main urban strategies for cities in Slovenia are far from setting more concrete guidelines for the development of IS and/or UrS. In the future, more successful integration of IS and UrS is possible in the context of regeneration development of brownfield sites.

This article presents cultivated terraces as social and economic landscape elements that are closely connected with natural conditions. The theoretical part, which presents some of the professional activities connected with terraced landscapes and examples of studying them around the globe, is followed by a detailed presentation of the features of the unique terraced landscape in the Brkini Hills, Slovenia. Its features, changes, and development trends are placed within the context of the natural features of the area studied, especially its relief conditions and aspect, as well as unfavorable demographic characteristics and modern agricultural trends. Despite modern mechanized farming, the remaining farmers are finding it increasingly more difficult to maintain the cultural landscape. The former tilled terraces were converted into meadows decades ago. Many terraces are being overgrown. Afforestation threatens the future existence of cultural landscapes and affects their development potential and significance as a cultural value.

With the introduction of mechanization in agriculture, the area of terraced slopes has increased. However, in most cases, the planning of terracing in practice remains experience-based, which is no longer effective from an agricultural, geological, and hydrological point of view. The usual method of building terraces, especially terraces with earth risers, is therefore outdated, and a new method must be found for planning and building terraced areas. In addition to geographical information system (GIS) tools, parametric design tools for planning terraced landscapes are now available. Based on the design approaches for a selected plot in the Gorizia Hills in Slovenia, where we used a trial-and-error method, we improved previous results by defining a model using a computer algorithm that generates a terraced landscape on a selected slope depending on various input parameters such as the height of the terrace slope, the inclination of the terrace slope, the width of the terrace platform, and the number of terraces. For the definition of the algorithm we used the visual program tool Grasshopper. By changing the values of the input data parameters, the algorithm was able to present combinatorial simulations through a variety of different solutions with all the corresponding statistics. With such results it is much easier to make a conscious decision on which combination of parameters is optimal to prevent landslides, plan adequate drainage, and control soil movements when building terraces. The controlled slope intervention is further optimized by the introduction of a usage index (Tx), defined as the quotient of the sum of all flat areas (terrace platforms) and the total area of the plot.