Transport Accessibility As a Factor of Depopulation and Developmental Delay: Case Study Žumberak

Abstract

Žumberak has recorded depopulation processes in the past eight decades. A complete demographic breakdown of Žumberak happened in the second half of the twentieth century. That period in Croatia was marked by urban-based industrialization on one hand and deagrarization and deruralization on the other hand. In those circumstances, socio-geographic transformation failed in Žumberak. Modernization processes in the cities, in combination with their absence in Žumberak, have made Žumberak unattractive for living. In the second half of the twentieth century, emigration led Žumberak to the verge of extinction. In this paper, methods of demographic statistics and GIS analysis of transport accessibility are used in combination with the application of graph theory in the analysis of the transport network of the researched area. The results of the research suggest the conclusion that the revitalization of Žumberak is only possible with considerable material investments in the framework of well-elaborated and well- -designed development plans. They should certainly include transport accessibility improvement.