In this master's thesis, we investigated the influence of freeze-thaw cycles on the occurrence of rockfalls in Slovenia, focusing on engineering geological units and long-term climate trends. Using data from 57 rockfalls and measurements from 16 meteorological stations, we analysed the temperature conditions and the number of freeze-thaw cycles in the periods before each event. The results show that both the number of cycles and the length of the observation period have a significant influence on the occurrence of rockfalls — especially in spring, where the difference between the freeze-thaw cycles before and after an event is statistically significant. Although no statistically significant differences were found between the engineering geological units, the cumulative analysis showed that rockfalls in clastic rocks tend to occur after fewer freeze-thaw cycles, indicating a higher sensitivity of these rocks to temperature stresses. The analysis of the long-term trends at the individual meteorological stations revealed a statistically significant increase in freeze-thaw cycles at only one station, although no uniform trend was observed over the decades. The study confirms that freeze-thaw cycles are an important triggering factor for rockfalls in Slovenia, but also very unpredictable, as the current data do not allow reliable predictions as to whether their frequency will increase or decrease in the future.
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