Impact of the recession on the attractiveness of urban and rural areas of Slovenia

In this paper, we analyse and present the findings regarding\ud the impact of the recession that began in 2008 in Slovenia\ud on the attractiveness of predominantly urban, intermediate\ud and predominantly rural areas of Slovenia. We tested some\ud hypotheses regarding the impact of the recession on the\ud attractiveness of analysed areas to both internal migration\ud and commuting flows between the municipalities of\ud Slovenia. To this end, an adjusted spatial interaction\ud model was developed by evaluating standardized regression\ud coefficients. We analysed the impacts of population size,\ud distance, employment, gross personal income, municipality\ud revenue per capita, the average price per square metre\ud of apartments and houses, and age structure in the\ud municipality pertaining to the decision to migrate or\ud commute to the analysed areas. The impact of the recession\ud was analysed by comparing the estimations of standardized\ud regression coefficients before the recession (2007) and during\ud the recession (2011)

Real estate market activity in Slovenia in 2000-2006

This paper examines a particular aspect of Slovenian real estate market that is still developing -real estate market activity. Only two decades ago, Slovenia still had a socialist, planned economy, so there is a lack of tradition in the fields of both the real estate market and analysis of that market. The former only started to develop with the transition to the market-oriented economy in the beginning of the 1990s. Significant progress was observed in the second half of the 1990s, due to the favourable economic development of the country. In our research, we focused on the real estate market development in the 2000-2006 period, which was marked by major changes in legislation and other institutional backgrounds, directly or indirectly referring to the field of real estate and real property. The development of the real estate market in Slovenia was examined for a given period on the basis of the available market data, which have been acquired from the Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia; the real estate market activity development is analysed by statistical regions and types of real estate. The results show general developments in the Slovenian real estate market for the given period and, in particular, the influence of institutional and legal factors on real estate market activity

The influence of protected natural and cultural heritage on land management/market: The case of Slovenian natural protected areas

This article is focused on finding problems in land use domain in the areas of protected natural and cultural heritage. In the paper, the influence of special regulation in the natural and cultural protected areas on land management is presented. The paper gives an overview on history of cultural heritage and nature protection initiatives in Slovenia and provides a review on basic EU and international initiatives, conventions in this field. For the case of Slovenian rural land market, it highlights the problem of complex institutional regulations relating to land management in the protected areas, which affect mostly local people. Here, the impact of the protected regimes, the case of pre-emption right, on land management and consequently spatial development in local communities is stressed, which is an important topic in particular in less developed regions since restriction of land use often means more complex, costly and time lasting procedures in land management and less opportunities as the consequence

DECISION MAKING IN COMPETITIVENESS OF REGIONS

ESPON ATTREG project aims to investigate the motivation and behaviour of migration flows and daily commuting of students, tourists, aging population migrating to their secondary homes, students and other “part time” commuters – but especially behaviour of human resources in gross migrations and daily commuting – between regions. One of the key elements of the cohesion policy of the European Commission is the contribution of the development of new transport infrastructure to regional economic development. Extensive spending has taken place under ERDF, Cohesion Fund and ISPA to reduce disparities among regions. One of the prominent initiatives in the European Union in this respect is the development of the Trans-European transport networks (TEN-T), where also investments in Slovenian networks took place among priority list, which is based on the accessibility index value. In the case study of Slovenia decision support system is suggested for better forecasting the results of investments

Use of Constraints in the Hierarchical Aggregation Procedure Intramax

Background: Intramax is a hierarchical aggregation procedure for dealing with the multi-level specification problem and with the association issue of data set reduction, but it was used as a functional regionalization procedure many times in the past. Objectives: In this paper, we analyse the simultaneous use of three different constraints in the original Intramax procedure, i.e. the contiguity constraint, the higher-inner-flows constraint, and the lower-variation-of-inner-flows constraint. Methods/Approach: The inclusion of constraints in the Intramax procedure was analysed by a programme code developed in Mathematica 10.3 by the processing time, by intra-regional shares of total flows, by self-containment indexes, by numbers of singleton and isolated regions, by the number of aggregation steps where a combination of constraints was applied, by the number of searching steps until the combination of constraints was satisfied, and by surveying the results geographically. Results: The use of the contiguity constraint is important only at the beginning of the aggregation procedure; the higher-inner-flows constraint gives singleton regions, and the lower-variation constraint forces the biggest employment centre as an isolated region up to a relatively high level of aggregation. Conclusions: The original Intramax procedure (without the inclusion of any constraint) gives the most balanced and operative hierarchical sets of functional regions without any singletons or isolated regions

Regions for Servicing Old People: Case study of Slovenia

Background: Aging is one of the most serious problems that most developed countries are facing in the 21st century. In the European Union, Member States are responsible for the planning, funding and administration of health care and social protection systems. Local authorities and state governments should undertake research toward developing an appropriate array of community-based care services for old people. Objectives: This study analyses the regions of Slovenia for servicing old people in the 2000–2010 time horizon. Methods/Approach: Sets of functional regions were modelled for each year in the analysed period using the Intramax method. Functional regions were evaluated based on the attractiveness of central places for labour commuters and the propensity to commute between regions. Results: The results show that in addition to the nominally declared regional centres of Slovenia, there are also some other local centres that should be potentially included in the functional areas for servicing old people. Conclusions: The results suggest that the regionalization into seven functional regions is the most convenient for servicing old people in the region. Furthermore, some additional functional regions at a lower level are suggested

The Influence of the Zonation Effect on a System of Hierarchical Functional Regions

Background: Hierarchical functional regions (FRs) can be calculated using data on interactions between basic spatial units (BSUs) and a hierarchical aggregation procedure. However, the results depend on the selected system of initial BSUs. In spatial sciences, this is known as the zonation effect, which is one of the effects of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). Objectives: In this paper, we analyse the influence of the zonation effect on a system of hierarchical functional regions. Methods/Approach: We compared two systems of hierarchical functional regions of Slovenia modelled by the Intramax aggregation procedure using the inter-municipal labour commuting flows for the same year, but for two different initial sets of municipalities. Besides, we have introduced a new measure to compare systems of hierarchical FRs. Results: The results show that the zonation effect has an influence on hierarchical functional regions. The clustering comparison measure suggested here is a metric measure, which is appropriate for comparing hierarchical FRs. Conclusions: The zonation effect has influence on hierarchical FRs. The clustering comparison measure suggested in this paper is easy to interpret, but it should be adjusted for the number of clusterings

Migration Flows through the Lens of Human Resource Ageing

Background: Ageing and shrinking of the European population influence the shrinking of central places and the hinterland of cities in a spatial structure. Migration also influences the shrinking or growing of spatial units. Various factors influence migration and, thus, spatial units\u27 demographic, social and economic stability. The age structure of citizens in a spatial unit may change not only due to population ageing but also because these factors influence the migration flows of different cohorts differently, which has not been studied so far. Objectives: We used data on internal migration between Slovenian municipalities in 2018 and 2019 to develop a cohort-based spatial interaction model to estimate future inter-municipal migration. Approach: In a spatial interaction model, we analyzed differences in the attractiveness and stickiness of municipalities for different cohorts, focusing on those over 65 who may wish to prolong their working status. We also tried to answer the question of how to mitigate shrinkage processes in spatial units by investigating the potential to contribute to the social value of communities. Results: The study\u27s results show that the 65+ cohorts do not have the same preferences regarding the attractiveness and stickiness factors as younger migrants. Conclusions: The results of our study could contribute to better decisions at the national, regional, and/or local level when designing strategies for regional, urban, and/or rural development, exploring the best solutions for long-term care, and investing in appropriate networks, or considering the revitalization of rural municipalities

A model evaluating the number and areas of functional regions

Functional regions are a generalization of changeable social and economic functional interactions in a territory. These regions are increasingly used when analysing economic, social, environmental, and spatial development and when making development-related decisions. In this doctoral dissertation we propose a procedure to evaluate the areas and the number of hierarchical functional regions. The procedure is based on: (a) using Intramax, a hierarchical method to model functional region systems of labour commuting by time intervals, (b) comparison of functional region systems using the index proposed in this dissertation, (c) evaluation of functional regions using selected indicators, and (d) evaluation of the impact of selected socio-economic factors on labour commuting in, and between, functional regions in a spatial interaction model using regression analysis. The procedure of evaluating the systems of hierarchical functional regions was employed for the case study of Slovenia for the period 2000–2011. The study pointed at three characteristic and balanced systems of functional regions, whose area and efficiency, in the light of the proportion of inner flows and homogeneity of employment and housing self-containment, did not significantly change over the period analysed. These are: a system of 5 functional regions with centres in Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje, Koper, and Novo mesto, a system of 7 functional regions with centres in Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje, Koper, Novo mesto, Nova Gorica, and Slovenj Gradec, and a system of 60 functional regions. In the dissertation we tested the assumption that the number and the areas of functional regions could be evaluated according to the socio-economic factors that significantly influence labour commuting. The analysis of the impact of the various factors most often analysed in the literature on labour commuting in, and between, functional regions highlighted four factors whose impacts proved to be statistically significant over the whole period considered and at all hierarchical levels of larger (2–70) functional regions. These factors are: travel time to work, population in origin, population in destination, and the employment rate in destination. The proposed approach allows for continuous monitoring and evaluation of balanced systems of hierarchical functional regions in the territory of Slovenia. The characteristic and balanced systems of 5 and 7 functional regions, respectively, as highlighted in this dissertation, can provide a criterion for deciding about establishing provinces in Slovenia

Funkcionalna urbana područja kao instrument politike prostornog razvoja na regionalnoj razini na primjeru Slovenije

Over the recent decades, the concept of functional urban areas [FUAs] has been relatively independently established in many countries around the world. The paper first addresses the FUA concepts and their application. T hereafter, a FUA analysis is conducted using an adapted version of the m ethodology used by OECD and Eurostat on the case of Slovenia. Results showed that the existing network of urban centres is solid enough so that FUAs are formed around them, which will in time grow into more solidly delineated functional regions [FRs].Koncept funkcionalnih urbanih područja zaživio je tijekom posljednjih desetljeća, relativno nezavisno u mnogim zemljama širom svijeta. U ovome se članku razmatra koncept funkcionalnih urbanih područja i njihova primjena. Zatim se taj koncept analizira putem adaptirane verzije metodologije koju koristi OECD i Eurostat na primjeru Slovenije. Rezultati pokazuju da je postojeća mreža urbanih centara dovoljno čvrsta kako bi se oko njih formirala funkcionalna urbana područja koja će vremenom prerasti u funkcionalne regije s prepoznatljivim obrisima