DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION OF BANJA LUKA SUBURBAN SETTLEMENT VRBANJA

Abstract

The suburban Banja Luka settlement Vrbanja developed in the southeast part of the Banja Luka valley, in the valley extension of the Lower Vrbanja River, along the highway (M4) and railway track Banja Luka – Doboj. Faced with the processes of deagrarisation and urbanisation, the settlement experienced demographic, functional and physiognomic transformation especially after 1971 when it became part of Banja Luka. The basic factors of the socioeconomic and physiognomic transformation of this settlement are: traffic and geographical position and excellent everyday connections to the central city; development of work function (industry of cellulose and viscose INCEL and etc.). The analysis conducted showed that the settlement, regardless of the aforementioned transformation factors, still has the features of a suburban area with modest representation of the central functions and a lower degree of development as well as a poor quality of communal services. The socioeconomic transformation of the population is reflected in a small share of the agricultural population (1,7%), but agricultural production, although of low intensity and productivity and on small areas, is still present and affects the physiognomy of the settlement. An important limitating factor of further transformation of the settlement is significant depopulation. Over the past twenty years the population of Vrbanja has declined by around 33,7% so the demographical revitalisation together with the planned development of new functions, also covered in the paper, is the principal precondition for future development.