Transportation accessibility as a factor of negative demographic processes: a case study of the Podgorje region (an Adriatic region of Croatia)

Podgorje is in the zone of the overlapping nodal-functional regions of Rijeka and Zadar. Despite its central position in the geographical context of Adriatic Croatia, the Podgorje region is suffering very negative demographic processes and trends because it is an area of poor transportation accessibility. The aim of this research paper is to analyze the interdependency of transport accessibility of Podgorje and the neighboring leading regional centers, as well as the negative demographic processes and trends that have destabilized this region and converted it into a rural periphery of Adriatic Croatia. The processes of littoralization and industrialization of the coast of Podgorje failed, when they should have created the prerequisites for the development of a functional network of settlements, which would have in turn created and kept necessary functions and retained the population. The absence of these processes has led to the demographic decline of the area.