engleski

Transformation of the Zagreb Urban Region

Together with its environs, the city forms a functional unit whose principal characteristic is intense and constant interaction. Since the term "environs" is relatively unspecific, the need arose to clearly define and isolate areas which have the most intense links to the city and in which the results of these links are best observed. This area, together with the central city, form the urban region. The criteria for discerning them can differ: demographic trends, daily commutes and other funkcional links, distance, etc. Since all relevant data from 2001 census that would facilitate a view into most recent changes in the Zagreb urban region are not yet available, most of this analysis makes use of data from 1991. census. For 2001, the available data on the active agriculture population, and daily commuters at the municipal level, were considered. The term transformation is used to designate changes in the socio-economic, functional and physiognomic sense. Socio-economic transformation is the result of links between the environs and the central city, and it is reflected through varying degrees of urbanization of settlements. In the Zagreb urban region, not counting the central city itself, five settlements have experienced the greatest degree of transformation and they can be deemed urban: Dugo Selo, Sesvete, Velika Gorica, Zaprešić and Samobor. These are also the largest settlements in the Zagreb region, which in earlier phases had a degree of centrality (municipal seats), and they developed as satellites to the city of Zagreb. The next category is more intensely urbanized settlements, and these are the majority in the Zagreb region (155 of 342). They are marked by a low share of the agricultural population and a high share of employed in the active population. The spatial arrangement of these settlements that generally surround Zagreb and extend along the main transit routes in radial fashion indicates that the main factor behind their transformation is daily commuting. This assertion is backed by the fact that the zone of greatest urbanization largely corresponds to the area of most intense commuting into Zagreb. The zone of enhanced transformation also extends around satellite centers, which indicates the maturity of the Zagreb urban region's developmnent, in which the satellite centers are very important. The remaining 83 settlements experienced a lower degree of transformation (weaker urbanization), while spatially they are adjacent to more intensely urbanized settlements. The region's very peripheries, farther from the central city and main transit routes, are domanted by generally small, rural settlements. Functional transformation is alalyzed through the function of labor. Here the satellite centers, and some other settlements, play a major role.

Zagreb Urban region; socio-economic transformation; functional transformation; physiognomic transformation

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