Types of changes of population development of settlements in South Banat (Serbia)

• Main Author: Đurkin Danica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Serbian Geographical Society 2018-01-01
• Series: Glasnik Srpskog Geografskog Društva
• Subjects: urban and rural settlements; typology; depopulation; polarization; socioeconomic transformation; South Banat
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-3593/2018/0350-35931800001D.pdf

The existing spatial organization and current demographic situation of settlements in South Banat are the result of the synchronized processes of industrialization, urbanization and deagrarization, which determined the selective transformation of urban and rural areas. The processes mentioned above led to the concentration of population in urban and suburban zones, municipal centers and functionally most developed rural settlements, but also to depopulation of their rural hinterland. The paper discusses changes in the spatial-demographic settlement organization and examines the socioeconomic conditions of settlements transformation. Changes in the population development of settlements were considered based on the analysis of the net relative change in the number of inhabitants in urban and rural settlements, for period from 1961 to 2011. In this way, four main types of settlements were determined: progressive, stagnant, regressive and dominantly regressive type. In order to show the correlation between demographic changes and socioeconomic transformation of settlements, the method of successive (alternating) coefficients was applied. By comparative analysis of these quantitative and qualitative indicators (types), with the application of geographical and historical-genetic methods, a clearer view of changes in the population development of settlements was made, which was the goal of the research.