Agrarian Landscape Between Transition and Sustainability - Gracanica Area Case Study

Abstract

During the past two decades, the area of Kosovo and Metohija has been subjected to extensive changes which can be studied through various layers of complex transition process and its outcomes. The emergence of new zones of rural settlements accounts for one of the major spatial results of the overall societal transition. In every of these administrative units -Štrpce, Ranilug, Gračanica and others, thorough spatial transformations continuously appear since the beginning of the transition process, to arrive to the point where sustainability of agrarian landscape is brought into question.By focusing the research on causal relations and on specific case example -the area of Gračanica, this paper studies the evolution of transition and concurrently investigates and defines its impacts on agrarian landscape. Multilayered space-time analysis has shown that the agrarian landscape of Gračanica currently rests on the borderline between sustainability and unsustainability. Since the beginning of the transition process, Gračanica landscape has been exposed to different physical, ecological, economic and socio-cultural pressures which contravene its value and qualities. The main current threats to the sustainability are found in development plans, erratic constructional and agricultural practice, environmental conditions, overall development, and inflow of capital which stimulates non-agricultural development and simultaneously causes multilayered loss of value of the most fertile agricultural land. Agrarian landscape of Gračanica area, as an absolute natural and cultural heritage, needs systemic preservation measures.

Anti-Evolution of the Phenomenon of Construction-Its Relation to the Environment

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A Study on the Sustainability of the Traditional Sirinić Houses in the Šar Mountain Region, the South-Western Balkans

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