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For almost half of a century, urban planning in Croatia took place under the socialist regime. During that time, it mostly played a role in addressing the pressing spacerelated issues of the development of socialist society, and in facilitating economic growth. In this paper, we examine urban planning in Croatia between 1944 and 1991 from eight aspects: the general roles of planning; legislation; relationship to societal planning; politicalinstitutional responsibility; urban planners and policy; plan execution; public participation; and environmental concerns. We analysed archival data and literature on urban, spatial and societal planning legislation and practices in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, including the planning journals Arhitektura and Čovjek i prostor, and planning legislation from the socialist period. We outlined the five evolutionary phases over which urban planning experienced decentralisation from the federal to the communal level, advancements in public participation, and the involvement of environmental considerations in the decision-making process. We also studied the evolution of planning tools, which originated in the socialist period but remains in use today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the socio-demographic profile of participants in the Croatian Islands' Birth Cohort Study (CRIBS), the first longitudinal study in Croatia to follow pregnant women and their children up to the age of two. The sample consisted of 286 pregnant women (145 from the islands of Brač and Hvar, and 141 from the mainland). The study aimed to: 1) summarise the main characteristics of the CRIBS study sample; 2) compare the sample with the general population of Croatia; 3) analyse the differences between the CRIBS participants according to place of residence (islands vs. mainland) and family type (nuclear vs. extended family). In comparison with women from the mainland, islander women had more often given birth to more than one child and finished only secondary school, while most of the women from the mainland had university degree. The prevalence of different family types also significantly differed between the islands and mainland, with islanders living in extended families and having lower average household income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of geomorphometric parameters and drainage networks are widely used in many scientific and civilian branches and activities. They are created using the Earth's land surface data, which are today mostly represented by digital elevation models (DEMs). The main objective of this study is to create models of slope, aspect, and drainage networks for the first time for the entire continental part of the Republic of Croatia, using the most detailed DEMs. In this paper, developed models are described, compared, and analysed, giving insights into morphological characteristics and structures of topographic surface. The quality of the derived models has been validated using existing independent data. Furthermore, because models were derived using various global DEMs, the differences between output models have been addressed and studied. Drainage network models were further analysed depending on several available computation algorithms (single and multiple flow direction) and threshold values. The analysis of the sensitivity and influence of input parameters and models on output models has been assessed in order to create reliable drainage network models for the future for other local or regional areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first comprehensive nationwide trend detection of mean discharges in Croatia. Over the last 30 years, global climate change has manifested itself largely in the rise of the average annual temperature, which has resulted in the changes of evapotranspiration and precipitation patterns. The consequences of those changes have been varied spatial impacts on river discharge (flow). We analysed the changes in mean river discharges in Croatia at 53 gauging hydrological stations over the most recent period from 1990 to 2009. To assess the trend, the Kendall-Theil (Sen) non-parametric trend test was carried out for the yearly and seasonal mean discharge values. We found evidence of redistribution of discharge throughout the year, an increase in autumn and winter discharges (especially on the rivers dominantly fed by snowmelt) and a decrease in summer discharge values. Furthermore, we detected a change in the month of the appearance of mean discharge maxima and minima. In most cases the changes can be explained by the changes in the regime of climate elements (temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration) although that information should be treated with care because of the shortness of the time-series. The results are consistent with the ones from the upstream countries, i.e. Slovenia and Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the proposed conceptualization of Croatia's regional economic development, Koncepcija regionalnong gospodarskog razvitka Republike Hrvatske (1999), addresses the challenges of Croatia's uneven economic development. While the problems of Croatia's lagging regions have been addressed, the conceptualization contains controversies regarding what should be the guiding principles of regional policy — targeted or balanced regional economic development. The proposed conceptualization represents a mixture of neoliberal thinking about the key actors in regional economic development, principles of European Union regionalism and the socialist-era legacies. Consequently, it lacks clarity in several key aspects. A specific challenge is the existing multiciplicity of regional and socials interests as well as the limitations of regional economic development based on rigid administrative-territorial units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the basic processes of contemporary development of the Croatian population: total, natural and emigrational depopulation and demographic ageing. The causal connection between the processes of general and partial depopulation is explained and the results indicate their far-reaching unfavourable effects to the future development of Croatian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper covers Croatia's transport position in the context of pan-European tranport corridors. National transport policy priorities, the main transit routes in Croatia and their compatibility with the needs of pan-European links are all considered. The basic features of Croatia's transport system and its compatibility with the development of different traffic modes are analyzed. The significance of the potential Adriatic-Ionian transport corridor is considered in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]