At the end of the Bosnian War in December 1995, an internal boundary was drawn within the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It came to be known as the Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL). Its implementation caused a profound alteration in regional and urban systems, dividing the new State into two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) – Croat and Bosniak majority – and the Republika Srpska (RS) – Serb majority. In this paper, the consequences of this boundary on urban and regional development are analysed, focusing on the effects observed in Sarajevo. The emergence of the IEBL has transformed the city since its region has been divided into two halves analogously to the entities newly created. This division has not affected the main urban area, but has altered the eastern suburban zone due to the creation of East Sarajevo, a new city in the Republika Srpska. The new urban nucleus of East Sarajevo is being built adjacent to these eastern suburbs, causing spatial and social alterations on the border. This complex situation is analysed at different scales – from the scale of planning to that of ethnography – in order to evidence that although the IEBL neither divides the historic city nor is a physical frontier, contrasting processes of homogenisation do exist on each side which maintains a significant social and morphological differentiation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Regarding topological interpretation of space, this research aims to identify urban morphologies, whose topology becomes increasingly determining under high uncertainty. This topological approach has been applied in an evolutionary analysis of urban spaces under siege, fear and conflict, which conducted to the construction of a specific method. This method analyses the transformation of urban areas in five consecutive phases: urban form [1], increase of uncertainty [2], application of the apparatus [3], change in urban form [4], information flows [5]. These five phases were applied to different empirical studies, analysed through specific morphological and topological models. In the light of this method, two selected urban morphologies Dobrinja –a suburb in Sarajevo– and the Beirut Central District have been examined. The urban morphology of both areas was dramatically transformed after both civil conflicts –the Bosnian War and the Lebanese Civil War–. Dobrinja suffered severe modifications, first provoked by the violence of the siege during the Bosnian War [1992-1995], and then by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line as a result of the Dayton Peace Agreement [December 1995], which divided the neighbourhood and caused serious alterations in its ethno-demographic and spatial structure. The Beirut Central District was first destroyed by the violence experienced in the Lebanese Civil War [1975-1990] and then by the process of subsequent reconstruction [since 1992], which led to a simplification of its structure. The two morphological and topological analyses enable us to determine the initial causes and their spatial consequences in both urban areas, regarding their conflict and post-conflict stage.