Some causes of the distribution of the population of dalmatia between 1971 and 1991

Abstract

The author considers the processes that took place within the system of settlements in Dalmatia in the period between 1971. and 1991. The stratification of the system of settlements occured along two lines: the growth of population along the coast accompanied by the relative or absolute reduction in the hinterland and on the islands, and the expansion of the population in towns with over 3000 inhabitants and the dying away of settlements with a smaller number of inhabitants. Such a concentraction of the population on the one hand and the reduction of the density of the population on the other opens a host of questions pertaining to the economic, spatial and social development as well as to the exploitation of natural and man-made resources in Dalmatia. The author's special concern is with the process of depopulation in the Dalmatian hinterland between 1991-1993 as a consequence of the war. His position is that the process of returning these people to their abandoned homes is not only a technical or an organisational question but a complex issue implicating the reasonable regional development of Dalmatia which would make possible the optimal use of its existing natural resources.