Urban expansion of the largest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the period 2000-2018

Branislav Drašković

doi:10.5937/gp25-32535

Abstract

The paper analyses the databases Urban Atlas (UA), Imperviousness, and CORINE Land Cover (CLC) for the largest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The UA database contains information for five functional urban zones with more than 100,000 inhabitants: Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar, and Zenica. The Imperviousness database is related to the subclasses of the urban atlas because the impermeability percentage has been used for a more detailed classification within the discontinuous urban area. The CLC database provides insight into the intensity of expansion of these cities during three six-year periods: 2000-2006, 2006-2012, and 2012-2018. The research has been used to analyse the expansion of urban zones, the structure, and form of cities, and the impact of urban expansion on the surrounding area. The results of the research show that, despite the negative demographic trends, there is a trend of urban expansion in B&H, mainly over the agricultural land. According to the CLC database in the period 2000-2018, artificial areas increased in spatial coverage from 1.35% to 1.7%, and urban fabric from 0.99% to 1.27%. The Imperviousness database shows that in 2018sealed areas covered 1.59% and built-up areas 0.8% of the territory of B&H. The 2013 census showed that the number of inhabitants in all five functional urban areas decreased compared to 1991, but despite that fact, the expansion of urban zones continues with a weaker or stronger intensity. So far, there has been no research on urban development based on the high-resolution layers UA and Imperviousness database in B&H, so that such research is the most significant contribution of this article.

Highlights

Socio-economic processes in the former socialist countries in the period of transition have resulted in accelerated growth of all capital cities in Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe
Substantial changes have occurred in the nature, role and functioning of government and of other institutions involved in spatial development and urban policy (Nedović-Budić et al, 2006).Urban expansion and suburbanization in South East Europe (SEE), is often fueled by rural-tourban migration of poor, rural strata, who move to the big cities in search of livelihood (Leontidou et al, 2007)
Impervious Built-up (IBU) 2018 database for Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) shows that build-up areas cover 0.8% and non-built ones 99.2% of the territory.The Imperviousness Density (IMD) is a raster displaying the degree of imperviousness (1-100%) for the five functional urban areas (FUAs) and for the reference year 2018 in 10m spatial resolution (Figure4-8)

Summary

Introduction

Socio-economic processes in the former socialist countries in the period of transition have resulted in accelerated growth of all capital cities in Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe. Substantial changes have occurred in the nature, role and functioning of government and of other institutions involved in spatial development and urban policy (Nedović-Budić et al, 2006).Urban expansion and suburbanization in South East Europe (SEE), is often fueled by rural-tourban migration of poor, rural strata, who move to the big cities in search of livelihood (Leontidou et al, 2007). These rural-to-urban migrants often settle on the urban fringe because of lower land prices (Korcelli, 1990). Economic developments and shortcomings in institutional frameworks have re-

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion