Regional Developmental Problems of the Rural Settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The paper considers developmental problems of the rural settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are results of long-term disparity in the regional development in the period 1991-2012. In this paper it is considered the recent migration from rural to urban areas and the depopulation of the rural areas. The result of these trends reflects the development of the new infrastructure and tertiary activities. In these investigations, statistical data processed and geovisualised in GIS were used. The obtained data indicate extremely unequable regional arrangement of the population in the rural areas and socio-economic development.Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, rural settlements, age structure, migration, war, depopulation, transition countries Methods of Work and Data SourcesMethodological approach is imperatively adjusted to the purpose of this paper, developmental problems of the rural settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have a strong influence on local and rural development.The research has been considered through local and rural development of the areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina.In estimation of economic contribution of rural activities to economy, quantitative methods in the range from stochastic to deterministic are almost exclusively used. Of stochastic methods, the most commonly used methods are econometric methods based on the analysis of time series, cross-sectional and panel data.Deterministic methods include models of gravitation (which can partially be stochastic models as well), input-output (IO) analysis and social accounting matrix (SAM), satellite account of tertiary activities and computable general equilibrium (CGE) model (Hara, 2008).With regard to contents and inclusion into a system on social accounting, evaluation of direct contribution of activities to local and rural development of economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a good basis for defining and application of the models that enable consideration of the total contribution of rural activities. Namely, with a direct contribution of tertiary activities perceiving the influence of tertiary activities on local and rural development is more complete, as well as extension of the analysis through considering the links between the sectors that directly sell the services and products of rural activities and those activities servicing these sectors

The patterns of depopulation in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Spatial autocorrelation analysis

“…The identified spatial clusters are areas that were less populated parts of pre-war Bosnia and Herzegovina due to less favorable geographical features. According to Nurković (2018) and Nurković and Drešković (2013), unequal regional development and the lagging of rural areas in the second half of the 20 th century in this country were a consequence of the polarization of economic activities. Depopulation of rural areas in the prewar period was caused by planned industrial development in urban areas that attracted rural population.…”