SPATIAL FUNCTIONAL TRANSFORMATION AND TYPOLOGY OF THE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM OF TOPLICA DISTRICT

Abstract

Contemporary processes of industralization, urbanization, deagrarianization, the polarization and globalization contribute socio-economic transformation of the observed space as well as the creation of new carrier of functional relationships in space. Towns with its own influences enrich the network of surrounding settlements, strengthen their mutual relations and create a whole functional settlement system of one area , or the gravity of the urban core. By dividing the functions of the primary, secondary and tertiary, the basis and types of settlements are created by functional criteria according to the type of economic activity and the primary content in them. In this area in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first century witnessed substantial changes in almost all components of demographic structure, which resulted in the transformation of functional types of settlement, when the predominantly agrarian settlement characteristic of the area of Toplica road went up mixed and service settlement. The idea behind the study is for the geographically complex area to be displayed in the light of socioeconomic development, and as a basis for further economic development of this part of the Republic of Serbia. Keyword: urbanization, rural settlements, urban settlements, functions, typology, sustainable development, District of Toplica