Urban green infrastructure and reuse of spaces and buildings: views from Croatia
Author: Željko Uhlir
Croatian towns and cities face similar challenges to other European towns and cities. Some of the most common and contemporary urban issues are certainly monocentric territorial development, urban sprawl and unsustainable urbanisation, depopulation and migration, and challenges induced by climate change. Each of these challenges needs to be approached separately, but they also need to be considered jointly, as they are intertwined and co-dependent.
The Croatian territory is developing in a polycentric manner around four urban centres: Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Osijek. However, the polycentric development model is not fully effective. Zagreb, as the capital, the administrative and cultural centre of Croatia, diminishes the importance and role of Croatia’s other large, medium-sized and small cities. This causes intra-state migration, the depopulation of other Croatian cities and rural areas, and ultimately results in uneven territorial and urban development. Population growth in some and population loss in other regions result in the use of ‘instant’ urban and spatial solutions that almost always have negative and long-term consequences.