Aleksandar Lukić

Although Croatian Island towns are often studied individually, they are rarely considered as a distinct group of settlements with specific characteristics resulting from their insularity and urban identity. This article begins with a proposal for a new model for identifying island towns in the Croatian context, based on their size, centrality and building density. Fourteen island cities were identified. Twelve of the fourteen are characterised by a strongly ageing population. With the exception of Novalja, they show negative natural population change. On the other hand, there are different trends in permanent migration, which have influenced the typology based on two main criteria: 1. age structure and natural population potential, and 2. characteristics of permanent migration. The analysis is further deepened by comparing analytical population projections for Novalja and Pag. In Novalja, the recovery of the population via immigration is expected to continue, while in Pag very negative demographic trends are expected to continue, unless there is a significant and sudden change in the characteristics of the factors influencing population dynamics.

The quality of life in both urban and rural areas is highly dependent on the availability of services of general interest. This study examines the provision and accessibility of 41 types of point-specific services, divided into 10 categories, within the functional urban region of Zagreb, Croatia, characterized by a declining population, despite being the most populous area in Croatia. This study adopts a multi-service rather than a single-service research approach, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. Using GIS composite indices for service provision and accessibility by car (cumulative opportunities) were calculated. Cluster analysis (Ward method, quadratic Euclidean distance) revealed seven different geographical patterns. The results show different patterns of service provision and accessibility throughout the urban region. Two specific areas were highlighted: traditional and inner peripheral areas with low levels of both service provision and accessibility, and suburban areas with very good accessibility but very poor service provision. The results of this study are particularly valuable as they relate to a single functional urban area that includes both urban, suburban and rural settlements of different types, a spatial framework that has not been sufficiently analysed in the literature.

Many settlements on the Croatian coast, especially the smaller ones, have developed in recent decades mainly due to the tourism industry, which brings numerous advantages, but also disadvantages. However, this does not have to be the case and is not always the case. To show an example of a different, balanced development, the municipality of Postira was chosen, which has a long tradition of a diversified economy based on its development in three branches - agriculture (olive growing), industry (Sardina fish factory) and the omnipresent tourism. The aim of the research is to identify benefits and developmental threats through the analysis of the attitudes and opinions of the local population and stakeholders. The research results were obtained through semi-structured interviews, with questions divided into six sections derived from contextualizing the concept of insularity in the specificities of the Croatian islands: lifestyle, transportation, projects, economy youth and future. Although the research confirmed the existence of a diversified and resilient economy that provides the inhabitants of Postira with a high level of employment opportunities as well as a high level of quality of life, problems such as the lack of leisure activities and the threat to the balance of the existing economic structure due to the new hotel and the increase in private accommodation units were also identified. This paper deals with the current living situation in the municipal settlements of Postira and Dol, and also points out the dangers and opportunities that the population is yet to encounter, and presents its predominantly optimistic view of the future.

In contemporary times, the dynamics of rural areas are greatly determined by processes of their social and economic restructuring and the direction of political reforms (Blacksell, 2010). In this sense, the transition from a planned socialist economy to an open market economy is one of the key moments in the transformation of rural areas in Central and Eastern Europe. The expansion and integration of the European Union have served to promote convergence in terms of implementing a single market and common approaches to rural development. However, despite this, the effects of the transition are spatially highly differentiated. The aim of this article is to succinctly present three models for understanding the causes and consequences of divergent rural development and the possibility of applying the most appropriate one in the study of the transition in the cross-border region of Baranja (Croatia and Hungary). The concepts of the rural Web (van der Ploeg, Mardesen, 2008), the learning region (Wellbrock et al., 2009), and DERREG ("Developing Europe's Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization") (Woods, 2009) are analyzed. DERREG was chosen as an adequate concept for application in future research, specifically in the design of thematic units and interview questions, as it directly identifies the actors and catalysts in the rural area that are of key importance during the transitional period of Baranja's development.

The academic picture of a globalized European countryside, and particularly of rural areas in postsocialist, new member states of the European Union, is one of huge and increasing complexity, diversity, and uncertainties about the future. The aim of this research is to construct alternative scenarios for rural Croatia in 2030, acknowledging its postsocialist transition as an important framework. Future development scenarios were constructed by integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches. The main methods used were: factor and cluster analysis; Monte Carlo simulation; and Delphi method, involving 37 rural experts in two rounds of written questionnaires. Four scenarios were developed: Rural Renaissance, Shift, Road to Nowhere, and Growth without Development. These scenarios provide a set of well-documented and reasonable assumptions to aid in thinking about possible future paths for the Croatian countryside, while at the same time allowing for the discussion of rural development paradigms.

Simulation modelling is a useful method for the explanation and prediction of land use and land cover changes, which are fundamentally interconnected with broader social and natural elements. Significant land cover changes, predominantly...

Lagging behind in economic and demographic development has been one of the fundamental features of Croatian peripheral karst areas for a long time. For that reason, the main research goal of this paper was to analyse attitudes of...

This paper closely examines the fluctuations in development of agricultural cooperatives in Croatia during their 150-year-long tradition, as well as recent development trends, and spatially-differentiated development in the contemporary...