Transportation accessibility as a factor in the demographic revitalization and deperipherization of Croatia

Poor transportion accessibility is an important factor in unfavorable demographic trends. It is clear that the spaces are poorly accessible compared to the centers to which they gravitate in a more unfavorable position from a demographic point of view than those whose transportion accessibility is good. Improving traffic accessibility is certainly one of the prerequisites for getting out of the current extremely unfavorable demographic situation in Croatia. The analysis of traffic availability provides an insight into the existing nodal-functional relationships in the space and actually outlines the actual situation in the interrelationship between the centers and the periphery. We often witness talks about the need to decentralize Croatia. In the simplest terms, the mentioned term implies the transfer of central functions from the centers to the periphery, whereby the periphery gains and the center loses central functions. At first glance, such an approach in the Croatian context seems justified, but a deeper insight into the issue points to the shortcomings of the described concept of decentralization. Therefore, a new concept should be implemented – deperipherization. Unlike decentralization, which weakens the center in favor of the periphery, deperipherization strengthens the existing ones and generates new central functions in the periphery in order to nullify peripheral characteristics. By implementing deperipherization, traffic isolation is also reduced, because improving the traffic availability of the periphery in relation to the centers of gravity is a significant determinant of the mentioned concept. Therefore, the analysis of traffic availability is very important for the further implementation of the broader concept of deperipherization. As a result of project research, scientific papers were published and new topics were opened for further research, which implies an interdisciplinary approach.