Natural Geographical and Cultural Bases of Croatian Islands Regionalization

In the scientific literature, the regionalization of Croatian islands and the associated sea waters is approached from different starting points and with different arguments. Even if the collective nesonyms of individual island groups are defined and generally accepted, their geographical and functional delimitation is sometimes debatable. This applies in particular to islands and groups at the junction of individual coastal regions in which different influences of individual littoral urban systems permeate (e.g. Rab, Pag, Lastovo, Korčula, etc.), but also to individual smaller, especially more remote islands or groups of islands (islets). For the purpose of a meaningful and generally acceptable differentiation of Croatian islands into basic groups and subgroups, clear criteria have been set. Depending on the starting point, the possible approach to differentiation can be partial or integral. The partial approach takes into account a certain feature, so the analysis can be, for example, physical-geographical, cultural, traditional, historical-geographical economic, political, etc. The integrated approach seeks to conceptualize a single regionalization based on the weighting of several criteria. The paper takes into account the results of previous relevant research and the genesis of administrative divisions in historical- geographical development, all the way to modern differentiation, delimitation and the current administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Croatia. Contemporary regionalization is based on knowledge of natural, social, i.e. cultural and anthropogeographical features contrary to any static model. The result of the discussion and analysis is a systematic contemporary regionalization of Croatian islands and the associated waters, which meet the development needs of islands and their inhabitants, respecting the socio-economic interests of that part of the Croatian littoral. The Croatian islands therefore consist of three clearly defined groups, northern, central and southern. The northern group (A) with the predominance of larger islands, specific relief direction route along the coast and connection to the Kvarner area and much smaller Istria, i.e. the centres in Rijeka and Pula, includes the western Istrian islands (A1) and Kvarner islands (A2) with subgroups Cres-Lošinj (A2.1), Krk (A2.2) and Rab (A2.3). The central group (B) includes the north Dalmatian islands (B1) with a predominance of small islands and a typical Dalmatian type of parallel relief in the direction NW-SE, which are connected to the city centres of Zadar and Šibenik, with subgroups Pag (B1.1), Zadar (B1.2), Kornati (B1.3) and Šibenik (B1.4). The southern group of Croatian islands (C) with predominantly larger islands reliefly in divergent stretching direction (predominantly W-E) includes the central Dalmatian islands (C1) which gravitate to the urban centre of Split with subgroups Trogir (C1.1), Brač-Šolta (C1.2), Hvar (C1.3) and Vis (C1.4) and southern Dalmatian islands connected to Dubrovnik (C2) with subgroups Korčula (C2.1), Lastovo (C2.2), Mljet (C2.3) and Elaphite (C2.4).