Preliminary communication
A Proposition for Defining Middle Towns in Croatia
Ratimir ZIMMERMANN
; Ministry of Regional Planning, Building and Housing, Zagreb
Abstract
ln modern countries throughout the world and Europe there is a
confusing definition of towns and urban spaces; i. e. there are no
internationally accepted criteria for singling out a settlement and
giving it the status of a town. In the Republic of Croatia,
according to varied criteria, from 69 to 204 settlements have had
the status of town or settlement with urban features in the past
forty years. In 1997 there were 122 settlements with legal town status in Croatia, followed by continuing aspirations of numerous
local communities to increase that number up to 150 or even
200 towns. Obviously, the above-mentioned suggests it is not
quite clear which c1usterof towns should the sub-c1usterof
"middle Croatian towns" be selected from, whether the present
122 towns, or a group of those aspired after, or perhaps one
based on scientific analysis (and accepted by law). There are
several mathematical procedures for calculating or defining
"middle", but the initial condition for all is a precisely defined total
group, cluster or number. Bearing in mind all that has been said,
this study commences with the probable or optimal basic cluster
of approximately 160 towns and small towns (settlementswith
urban features) in the Republic of Croatia (around the year
2000), and accordingly proposes a sub-c1usterof "middle
Croatian towns". From a cluster of 160 towns, applying three
synthesized criteria, a sub-c1usterof "middle towns" has been extracted.
lst criterion: settlement with over 10 000 inhabitants;
2nd criterion: settlement with over 7 000 permanent; inhabitants,
when it also has more than 20 000 equivalent inhabitants; 3rd
criterion: settlement with over 7 000 permanent inhabitants,
when it also has more than 5 000 people employed there. Based
on these three synthesized criteria a sub-c1usterof 54 middle
towns were extracted from the settlement cluster with urban
features. These middle towns have been further divided into three
characteristic groups, entitled: (l) "bigger" middle towns, (2)
"middle" middle towns and (3) "smaller" middle towns.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
31474
URI
Publication date:
30.4.1999.
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