CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL-GEOGRAPHIC PROCESSES IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF POTKOZARJE

Potkozarje is conditionally differentiated regional system in the northwestern part of the Republic of Srpska, which, in administrative and territorial terms, belongs to communities of different territorial organization and status – City of Banja Luka and City of Prijedor and municipalities of Novi Grad, Kostajnica, Kozarska Dubica, Gradiška and Laktaši. Potkozarje, with regard to the physiognomy of space and development processes, has a complex settlement function. Development centers from the environment have a crucial impact on the development processes in the region. Development impacts changed demographic, functional and spatial structure and a new system of spatial relations was created. The centers in the region have become the zones of extreme concentration of population and functions, thus the region faced many destructive processes and problems of unequal regional development. The aim of this paper is to explore the dynamics of structural changes and to point out the key problems of unequal regional development, as consequences of economic, social and political factors, as well as of diversity of natural basis.