Volume 20, Issue 2-7, June 2016
ASSESSING LAND-USE CHANGES IN TOURISM AREA ON THE EXAMPLE OF ČAJETINA MUNICIPALITY (SERBIA)
Authors: Uglješa Stankov, Michal Klaučo, Vanja Dragićević, Miroslav D. Vujičić, Milica Solarević
Abstract: Tourism development can strongly affect purpose of land use at the destination and in surrounding areas. However, the effects of development in tourism destination cannot be easily visible and proven. Sometimes indicators of tourism development do not show its signifcant impact, but the structural changes are occurring and they affect land use. The aim of this paper is to employ methodology for assessing effects of development on land-use changes in tourism destination. Proposed methodology includes combination of the use of publically available geographical data, geographical information systems and landscape metrics. The applicability of this approach has been investigated in test region of Čajetina municipality (south-western part of the Republic of Serbia), where tourism industry has flourished in last decades. Time series of maps (2000 and 2006) have been obtained from CORINE land cover project. Landscape metrics for area, size and density have been calculated for the entire test region and for tourism destination at patch and class levels. The results showed signifcant effects of development on land use changes in investigated tourism area comparing to its surroundings.
Keywords: GIS, land use, landscape metrics, tourism, Čajetina municipality, Serbia.
Article info:
Received: February 19, 2016 | Revised: April 23, 2016 | Accepted: June 3, 2016