engleski

Geography in regional planning - conditions and possibilities

Geography as a science, particularly if observed as a ''bridge science'' between nature and society, plays an especially important role in physical planning or at least it should. The analysis of the educational structure of people employed in county, city or municipal institutes and departments for regional planning, especially the ones in private sector, shows a concerning result of the absolute prevalence of architects, while the share of other professions in regional planning is extremely low or non-existing. This reality is contrasted with the ever-present emphasis on multidisciplinarity in regional planning and the need for common effort of experts from various fields, and represents a common problem for geography within regional planning practice in Croatia. Regional planning, especially its urban segment, represents a type of balancing between the possibilities of the observed area, the requirements of the holder of drafting (i.e. the local authority), the affinities and the intentions of the potential investors, the legislative boundaries, as well as the attempt to establish at least a minimal level of sustainable development in an area. The implementation of a level of sustainable development should actually represent one of the major tasks of geographers in the processes of planning and decision-making, as well as creating the planning documents and the associated studies. The most important segments of the above mentioned process where geographers are ''a necessity'' are following: • analysis and valorization of natural and social background of the observed area, • a complete demographic analysis with projections of current conditions, trends and possibilities, • an assessment of the existing and planned economic perspectives (with the inclusion of projections of the demographic factors), • coordination of various categories of protections and limits in exploitation of the area in order to obtain the most effective zones and locations for defined purposes, • usage of GIS technology in processing data and visualizing the mentioned processes, which should be an advantage of geography in comparison to other professions. It is also necessary to include the Geographic department in to the market, since a range of specialized studies ''bridging'' the gap between the natural and social backgrounds are needed to make a planning document, which is exactly where geography could excel (e.g. the Requirements for assessing the influence of interventions in the environment are currently provided by the Faculty of engineering and shipbuilding). That is why it is necessary to obtain an approach which would, for a start, reduce the ongoing alienation between theory and practice and would include all the possibilities and potentials, especially in the context of new information technologies, in order for geography to enter the applicative segment of planning.

regional planning; urbanism; regional plan; the Law on regional planning and construction

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