Croatia and Central Europe — the geopolitical relationship

The position of Croatia on the border of larger geographic wholes (Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the Balkans) makes it a transitional region for these larger areas. However, the Pannonian region of Croatia, as the largest part of its national territory, places it in the ranks of the Central European states. The long historical ties of the Croatian lands with the Austrian and Hungarian centers of Central European power also confirm Croatia's affiliation with Central Europe. The cultural, civilization, religious and other characteristics, which today ease Croatia's communications with Central European countries, are unavoidable. With state independence, Croatia acquired the political sovereignty vital for its Central European orientation and was liberated from the problems of the Balkans, although it is still struggling for its territorial integrity. Croatian statehood was realized soon after the reunification of Germany, which in fact renewed the concept and content of Central Europe. This fact opened many questions tied to the rivalry and political balance of the European powers, which is also connected to the geopolitical position of Croatia.     

Croatia — the land and natural features

As both Middle-European and Mediterranean country, the Republic of Croatia is composed of several regional units. Every single natural and geographical unit is not specific only in terms of its general natural features, but also by its role in linking Croatia with the rest of the world. Additional peculiarity of these geographic units is their complementary value, which gives good prerequisites for successful economic development of the country.In Pannonian section of Croatia prevail natural features close to those in other Central-European countries. Namely, this section of Croatia participates in Danube catchment area, linking Croatia with the rest of Central Europe. Dinaric Alps are typical mountainous area; in north-western part of the range (i.e. in the region of Gorski Kotar) they are very narrow, making thus possible a comparatively easy communication between Pannonian part of Croatia and the Adriatic coast. Coastal region of Croatia — stretching along the most of (north)eastern coast of the Adriatic — is predominantly characterised by Mediterranean natural features. Due to its size and share in total area of the country, territorial waters of the Adriatic sea can be accepted as the fourth natural and geographic unit of Croatia.     

Croatia — “a small country for a great vacation”

Croatia is a country of tourism, and this is primarily due to its position by the warm Adriatic Sea, its varying and picturesque landscapes, its diverse and generally favorable climate for tourism, its rich Mediterranean and Central European cultural heritage and its proximity to the leading European consumer countries.In the international tourism market, Croatia presents itself with the slogan A Small Country for a Great Vacation, because its 4.8 million inhabitants and surface area of 56,538 km² place Croatia in the ranks of the world's smaller countries. Its significance is increased by an additional 33,200 km² of territorial waters, of which a large part is considered internal waters because of its location within the limits of a series of islands.The tourism offering of Croatia is very diverse, but its basis is formed by three differing and mutually complimentary regions, through their natural characteristics and cultural heritage: coastal, montane and Pannonian and peri-Pannonian Croatia. The total tourism offering of Croatia includes 900,000 beds, of which over one-fifth are in hotels or similar places, two-fifths are in private rooms and one-third in camps.The tradition of tourism in Croatia is over one hundred years old, and according to the number of foreign tourists it is ranked as the fifth country for tourism in southern Europe.     

The Upper Adriatic borderland: From conflict to harmony

The paper presents an overview of the Upper Adriatic as a contact area between different cultural, social, economic and political entities, producing potential conflicts in the last century. The first part of the 20th century represented a classic example of geopolitical conflict through two World Wars and their related Peace Conferences that deeply impacted the region. Conflicts arising from the mid-century solution of the Trieste question transformed the Upper Adriatic into a laboratory of contemporary political geographic transformation. Changing geopolitical patterns have also modified the political, social and ethnic construction of the Upper Adriatic. The process of creating new international boundaries in the region ended in 1991 with the independence of Slovenia and Croatia. Through these geopolitical transformations in the Upper Adriatic, new political geographic attitudes evolved. Early on, Ratzel's geopolitical principles of defining borders as power barometers between neighbors dominated. More recently, attitudes have reflected modern integrative ideas with a focus on looking for harmony and the elimination of international conflicts. Greater attention has thus been given to the political geography of `everyday life', inter-ethnic relations, and cross-border contacts. Hence, `new' borderlands of the Upper Adriatic are more receptive to integration because they seek to overcome conflicts caused by the division of traditionally homogeneous spaces as local level political and ideological hindrances disappear. The region divided among Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia is becoming a new and special type of European borderland in the new century.     

Contested terrains: Cities and hinterlands in post-apartheid boundary delimitations

In South Africa attempts are being made to address the socio-spatial distortions of the apartheid era through a more equitable distribution of resources, and the re-drawing of municipal geographical boundaries. However, boundaries are not neutral geographic lines. Boundary changes are often associated with a redistribution of political power and resources. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the contemporary territorial and administrative restructuring on urban dynamics in South Africa. More specifically, the focus is on how the process of territorial restructuring impacted on metropolitan areas as well as on secondary cities and their hinterlands. Examining and elucidating the manner in which various social, economic and political forces have manifested themselves in the process of boundary delimitation in a major metropolitan centre as well as adjacent rural areas is a central theme of this paper. There were considerable contestations over the delimitation of new local government boundaries. Affluent metro authorities like that in Durban were opposed to the spatial extension of their boundaries because of the costs of the providing services and infrastructure in the deprived margins. Similarly, there was concern that incorporation of rural areas will result in increased municipal service charges being imposed on these communities. Tensions were heightened between urban and rural regions because traditional leaders believed that their territorial jurisdiction and authority were being undermined. In other parts of the country, the merger of traditionally white and black fragments of secondary cities often resulted in many black locations continuing to be marginalized. There appears to be neither the political will nor the economic capacity to upgrade these zones of marginalized urban communities. While the Municipal Demarcation Board was largely successful in eliminating the political geography of apartheid at a macro- scale, this paper suggests that the greater challenge for government and policy makers is to reduce the socio-spatial and economic inequalities which appears to be still very high and perhaps increasing. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The strategy of region-specific development in Italy

This article looks at the ‘region-specific’ economic development strategy which has emerged in Italy during the last fifteen years as a result of the creation of institutionalized regional government. It is argued that the decentralization of decision-making and administrative powers in the areas of territorial, economic and social planning has coincided with the reorientation of manufacturing to ‘service-intensive’ production and permitted the formulation of diversified roles by the regions in areas of policy-making vital to regional development. The article concludes with a discussion of the roles fulfilled by the regions in the promotion of region-specific products and services.     

衡水市水功能区排污现状分析研究

衡水市是河北省缺水的城市之一,同时也是水体污染较突出的城市之一.由于衡水市经济的快速发展和人口的不断增长,工业废水和生活污水的排放在大量增加,根据2010年对全市水功能区及非水功能区重新进行的排污口核查与监测结果,从水功能区划分、水质状况、排污现状等方面,详细探讨了衡水市水功能区排污状况,并提出了排污治理建议.     

Division into economic districts,regional planning and urban planning,the Soviet case

Research of the interrelation between regional planning, division into economic districts and urban-planning, division into economic districts and urban planning is here emphasised. In the USSR development of a network of territorial economic complexes, economic districts including subregions of the II and III order, economic subregions and microdistricts is continuous. The outlook of regional planning is defined by the elaboration of its scientific theory including the geographical concept of regional planning. The use of geographical methods widens the scientific basis for the development of a systems approach and improves forecasting, the choice of aims and strategy of developing production, population distribution and the solution of ecological problems. The efficiency of regional planning depends not only on purely economic advantages, but on a more sensible use of nature. Regional planning is concerned with bio-economic systems, and must avoid conflict between the most important subsystems, natural and anthropogenic. Preservation of ecological balance has become the most important task of regional planning. When locating industrial enterprises in the process of regional planning, ecological factors are taken into account to an ever-increasing degree. The main tasks of regional planning concerning the distribution of agriculture stem from the aim of interrelated development of all elements of the agrarian and industrial complex. During the scientific and technical revolution the distribution of production orientates more and more and not towards individual towns but towards a system of populated areas. Systematic improvement of conurbations and their transformation into group systems of populated areas, regulated according to plan and having a broader economic and territorial base, are the most important task of regional planning and urban development.     

Indigenous regional systems and Rural Development in Southern India

As a result of critism of the industrial-urban biased paradigm of development, a new social development approach is beginning to emerge. According to this strategy, development must be fitted to ecological constraints, priority attention must be given to rural development, and planning for rural development must be decentralized, participatory, and deeply immersed in the particulars of local settings. Agropolitan districts, or networks of socio-economic and political interaction, have been suggested as a suitable territorial basis for this paradigm. In India, where local planning has not been successful, indigenous regional systems, which correspond closely to criteria suggested to delineate agropolitan districts, have existed for hundreds of years. This is especially true in Tamil Nadu where a hierarchy of nesting socio-spatial units is firmly established in peasant tradition. Information is presented on the positive and negative aspects of the use of such regions for rural planning. It is suggested that these regions may better fulfil the objectives of agropolitan development than sets of functional regions derived from the urban hierarchy.     

Indigenous regional systems and Rural Development in Southern India

As a result of critism of the industrial-urban biased paradigm of development, a new social development approach is beginning to emerge. According to this strategy, development must be fitted to ecological constraints, priority attention must be given to rural development, and planning for rural development must be decentralized, participatory, and deeply immersed in the particulars of local settings. Agropolitan districts, or networks of socio-economic and political interaction, have been suggested as a suitable territorial basis for this paradigm. In India, where local planning has not been successful, indigenous regional systems, which correspond closely to criteria suggested to delineate agropolitan districts, have existed for hundreds of years. This is especially true in Tamil Nadu where a hierarchy of nesting socio-spatial units is firmly established in peasant tradition. Information is presented on the positive and negative aspects of the use of such regions for rural planning. It is suggested that these regions may better fulfil the objectives of agropolitan development than sets of functional regions derived from the urban hierarchy.     

基于主导生态功能的江西省国土空间生态修复分区研究

以地域分异特征、主导生态功能、典型生态问题为基础依据,探讨江西省国土空间生态修复分区,为江西省编制和实施生态修复规划、实现国土空间管控提供科技支撑。在研究方法上,以“生命共同体理论”“三生协调理论”“适宜性管理”等理论为指导,基于主体功能区划和生态功能区划,综合“三生”空间实际生态问题及综合整治需求,采用多因素综合空间分析法,“自上而下”和“自下而上”相结合,实现国土空间生态修复三级分区。研究结果表明,可将江西省国土空间生态修复区域划为赣北平原湖泊生态修复区、赣中丘陵盆地生态修复区、赣西山地丘陵生态修复区、赣南山地丘陵生态修复区、赣东丘陵山地生态修复区5个大区及24个亚区和42个修复小区。通过江西省国土空间生态修复三级分区,摸清国土空间地域特征,明确生态主导功能,确定生态修复重点区域,承上启下,为实施生态修复工程和国土空间管治提供决策依据,为实现国土空间整体保护、系统修复、综合治理提供科技途径。     

Stratigraphic chart of Cambrian deposits in the Turukhansk–Irkutsk–Olekma region,Siberian Platform

The former stratigraphic chart of the Cambrian in the Turukhansk–Irkutsk–Olekma region of the Siberian Platform was compiled in 1986 and approved in 1988. Large amounts of data were obtained from new wells drilled in the western and northern parts of the region during the preceding 20 years. Modifications necessitated by new data entail an indefinitely continuous series of revised facies zonation, recognition of new facies areas, regions and zone, as well as definition of a regional early Mayan stratigraphic hiatus. A new local stratigraphic division is the Olenchima Member (base of the Evenk Formation) underlain by a hiatus. The term Kochumdek Formation is no longer used in the Bakhta region and its lithologically distinct subformations (Yasenga, Moktakon, Mara, and Abakun) were raised to formation rank. The Olenchima Formation is no longer used in the Baikit zone; but instead, the Litvintsevo Formation was established here by correlation.     

In the wake of a counterclockwise rotating Adriatic microplate: Neogene paleomagnetic results from northern Croatia

In northern Croatia, the Neogene sediments cover complicated basement rocks which consist of Alpine and Dinaridic elements in the Zagorje area, and Variscan - Alpine formations of the Tisia (Tisza) megatectonic unit in the Slavonian Mountains (Mts.). The Neogene sediments were deposited in two separate basins before the Karpatian, but sedimentation became uniform from the Karpatian onwards (~17.5 Ma). Of the 24 localities that we have studied so far paleomagnetically from northern Croatia, 16 localities are of Karpatian or younger age, while the rest are pre-Karpatian. As a result of laboratory analysis, 16 localities yielded tectonically interpretable results. Our data suggests that northern Croatia shifted northwards, while rotating moderately counterclockwise, probably before the Karpatian. A second counterclockwise rotation occurred at the present latitude in post-Pontian times. There is no significant difference between localities situated above different basements, though Tisia is pictured as rotating clockwise in the Neogene. The paleomagnetic pattern of northern Croatia resembles that of areas situated north of the Periadriatic-Balaton line. Therefore, we conclude that northern Croatia is part of a larger block, dissected by several important tectonic lines, driven by the counterclockwise rotated Adriatic microplate.     

元江—红河界河地区土壤侵蚀研究

为支撑我国界河地区国土防护工作,以中国、越南交界的元江—红河界河地区为研究区,基于3S技术进行界河地区的土壤侵蚀研究。采用Landsat 8卫星遥感数据,基于水体指数、植被覆盖度、土壤可蚀性及坡度进行土壤侵蚀强度研究,初步建立了界河地区的土壤侵蚀强度遥感评价方法,提出了界河地区国土防护措施与建议。     

Environmental fragility framework for water supply systems: a case study in the Paulista Macro Metropolis area (SE Brazil)

Water resources availability is increasingly constrained, considering the quality and quantity available for use. There is an urgent need of recovering this availability, focusing on the planning and management process of water supply systems. One of the main threats to water resources is related to erosion effects, namely widespread pollution load and the silting of watercourses and reservoirs useful life reduction. The objective of this study was to evaluate water supply systems environmental fragility within the Paulista Macro Metropolis area and to use the results to develop environmental zone classes to orient territorial planning. The study was conducted in seven superficial water supply systems of the aforementioned region. Environmental fragility evaluation was focused on four environmental variables that represent natural vulnerability to erosion, and 2015 land cover map to delineate human influence on erosive processes. Results indicate that Tietê River water supply systems, namely Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaí (PCJ) and Itupararanga systems, can be considered the most fragile water supply systems in the study area. The environmental fragility map was used to derive the environmental zoning map, including conservation and priority areas, suitable regions for agriculture expansion, and areas with high needs for restoration efforts. In addition, environmental fragility framework herein can be viewed as a model with high replication potential for regional planning and management in that land cover can be manipulated to minimize environment natural vulnerability, guiding territorial occupation toward a more sustainable landscape design, which subsidizes water resources multiple uses.     

The development and structure of the Croatian economy

The first part of the article deals with the general and historical conditions of the development of the Croatian economy, with an emphasis on industry as the dominant branch. The relatively favorable developmental possibilities of Croatia are stressed, with the combination of the agrarian Pannonian region, the forested stock-farming highland regions and the tourism-transit front of the Adriatic. The basic data on periods of historical development are mentioned, with an explanation of the five developmental stages.The second half of the article deals with a thorough analysis of the basic processes of the restructuring of the Croatian economy. Emphasis is placed on the decreased significance of agrarian and agricultural production (in 1961 Croatia had an agricultural population of 43.7%, while in 1991 it was only 9.6%), and the domination of industry, which in 1987 accounted for 35.1 percent of the employed population and 50.3 percent of the gross national product. The processes of restructuring and transition from a socialist to a market economy, as well as the wartime crisis, caused a fall in the value of industrial products to 43 percent in the years from 1990 to 1994. The branch and spatial restructuring of the economy and industry, privatization processes and the problem of increased unemployment are also analyzed.     

Croatia's territorial consolidation and prospects for the future

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of developments in Croatia related to boundary and territorial issues in the aftermath of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. This survey will therefore detail key events including the Serbo-Croatian war of 1991, the uprising of the Serbian minority, international mediation efforts, the deployment and operation of UN forces in Croatia and Croatia's territorial consolidation in 1995. In the aftermath of Operations Flash and Storm in May and August 1995, respectively, and the spectacular gains by combined Croat and Bosnian forces in western Bosnia in September 1995, Croatia's strategic outlook has been transformed. There are, however, several outstanding issues and disputes yet to be resolved and these will be outlined.     

Partition,secession and peace in our time

This paper deals with the comparative issues of partition and secession, both as territorial issues and as problems of sovereignty, focussing on the state system. The democratic principle of national self-determination is recognised by the international community but is unequally and cynically applied, designed to protect the existing system of states. Partition, division, and secession, may heighten tensions between the parties and greatly magnify the extent of any future conflict, by creating new sovereign states. The weakening of the nation-state within its own borders by forces of globalization unleashes intensely nationalist sentiments, increasing instability within the state, and to partition or secession which, in turn, further destabilize the interstate system. This paper was written while an Academic Visitor in the Department of Geography, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.     

基于生态网络构建与优化的太仓国土空间生态保护修复关键区域诊断与识别

以江苏太仓作为研究区域,基于生态系统服务评估确定生态源地,采用最小累积阻力模型（MCR）和重力模型构建生态廊道,提出生态网络优化模式和对应管控策略。经计算和分析,提取面积30 365.46 hm2的重要生态功能区作为生态源地;识别生态源地161.46 km2,其中水域生态源50个、陆域生态源地47个;提取水域生态廊道53条、陆域生态廊道56条,且水域生态廊道相较于陆域生态廊道更为完善,连通性和稳定性更高;识别需优先保护的生态夹点25个,优先修复的生态障碍点18个。研究成果可为系统性开展国土空间生态保护修复提供借鉴和指导。