Small towns as mediators towards spatial resilience: The case study of network of settlements in Vojvodina region

摘要

The development of settlements in Vojvodina is burdened by numerous problems, both environmental and social, which seriously jeopardize their path towards resilience. The effects of climate changes have been identified mostly in the form of floods, inundations and prolonged droughts affecting agriculture as the dominant activity in the region. On the other hand, settlements in Vojvodina, especially small towns and villages, suffer from chronic depopulation and the 'emptying' effect. Naturally, this transfers its consequences to major cities and the entire regional network of settlements. In this article we will focus on a particular type of settlement in Vojvodina - small towns, specific because of their urban-rural character and their significance within the above-mentioned issues. What are the possibilities for this type of settlement to improve its ecological resilience, a property that is the conditio sine qua non of sustainability? Our assumption is that small towns, due to their hybrid urban-rural character, possess sufficient flexibility and polyvalence to take on the role of the 'fluid object' i.e. the mediator that allows the proliferation of relational objects between urban and rural areas, and that will allow spatial resilience of the entire network of settlements. We will use the concept of spatial resilience in order to extend the question of ecological resilience of one type of settlement to the entire network of towns. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR43007: Studying climate change influence on the environment: impacts, adaptation and mitigation]