MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Financial Support
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Zagreb, Croatia
Research Coordination
Dr. sc. Sanja Tisma, IMO, Zagreb, Croatia
Objectives
The main goal of the project is to develop and test new models of sustainable management of development resources on the examples of selected administrative (counties) and natural-geographic units (karst areas) with support of various economical and statistical methods.
At the level of the administrative units, the project will seek to identify ways and means of reconciling often confronted priorities of support for economic development and environmental protection will be sought, while, at the same time, improving capacity of key regional actors.
At the level of the karst areas, possibilities for the use of protected areas (national parks and nature parks) as promoters of local and regional development will be investigated (for example: eco-tourism, educational/recreational function of parks; eco-agriculture, etc.), as well as how to strengthen capacity for management of development resources in these areas.
Special objective of the research is to identify and use appropriate analytical methods that would enable continued monitoring of sustainable development at regional level in Croatia, thus providing a long term basis for further research.
Activities
Scientific methods envisaged in the scope of this project are in line with the area of research in the field of ecological economy and regional economy. When it comes to the problems of local or regional development which must include different, often mutually conflicting goals of environmental protection and economic development, while at the same time achieving compromises to satisfy interests of certain social groups, the following two multi-criteria methods will be applied:
- Multi-scale Integrated Analysis», in order to overcome the so called technical non-measurable variables between different fields of research (ecologic, social and economic), so as to present them in a heterogeneous information field;
- Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation», in order to coordinate mutually confronted legitimate goals, interests and systems of value of certain social actors whose role is to consider alternative development policies or have been in any way affected by implications of these alternatives.
Both methods will be adapted to special conditions and circumstances of areas in Croatia where the research will take place. Special emphasis will be given to development of data base about sustainable development in Croatia at regional level which should serve as an analytical basis for the elaboration of benchmark method for monitoring of key sustainable development indicators at regional level in Croatia.