The impact of relief on the distribution of the population in the area of East Sarajevo

Abstract

Bosnia and Herzegovina, and therefore the City of East Sarajevo have in recent decades been affected by large demographic changes, primarily caused by the war that caused the population emigration population and, together with the process of demographic transition, characterized by a negative natural growth, have led to the depopulation, an aging of population, reduced life quality and low standard of living. The City of East Sarajevo is located in the eastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina and it consists of six municipalities: East New Sarajevo, Pale, East Ilidža, East Old Town, Sokolac and Trnovo, with about 216 settlements. It covers an area of approximately 1, 425 km ² and in hypsometric sense, these settlements are located between 500 and 1916 m of altitude. The morphometric features of the terrain, the horizontal and vertical articulation of relief, slope and elevation of the terrain, exposure, etc. have a major impact on the distribution of the settlement. The subject of this paper will be geographical and habitation specifics of East Sarajevo, vertical zones and distribution of the population. The aim of this paper is to determine whether and how the relief affects the distribution of the population in the researched area and how population depends on the morphometric parameters. Also, we want to determine how the population of mountainous landscapes of the explored territory has changed and what is its trend of the last few decades, since the process of migration from rural to urban areas and the process of land reclamation is expressed throughout the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a hypothesis, there is the depopulation that is more prominent in areas with higher altitude, and, through the paper we will examine and try to relate the movement of the population and hypsometric distribution of the population. The higher mountainous areas are more affected by intensive aging population, demographic fragmentation and the creation of rural built. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n22p176