PERCEPCIJA STANOVNIŠTVA SREDNJE LIKE O OBILJEŽJIMA I PROMJENAMA ZEMLJIŠNOG POKROVA/NAČINA KORIŠTENJA ZEMLJIŠTA
PERCEPTION OF THE POPULATION OF CENTRAL LIKA REGION ON THE LAND COVER/LAND USE AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents the results of a survey on the perception of the population of Central Lika on the characteristics and changes in land use on their own households/farms at the turn of the 20th and 21st century (after the 1990s) as well as their perception of landscape development. The survey was conducted by a combined (quantitative and qualitative) survey method on a sample of anonymous respondents selected by a simple random sample method »on the spot« (in situ) in several settlement groups that differ in terms of their location (proximity to roads, altitude, etc.). The survey questionnaires were analyzed by the IBM SPSS Statistics computer program. The results of the survey questionnaire were analyzed by descriptive statistics procedures, while individual relationships were analyzed by inferential statistics procedures, i.e., by the Hi-square (χ2) test. The analysis was conducted at the level of Central Lika region as a whole, and at the intraregional level of three groups of settlements in Central Lika region. One of the obtained important results of the research is that the respondents of the most rural, southeastern area perceive the landscape of Central Lika region more forested, as they have been much more engaged in the connection with the environment (working the land), and thus aware of changes in the landscape and the process of extensification and reforestation, unlike the urban population of Gospić and the population of larger settlements in the northern area, whose perceptions of afforestation were very heterogeneous.

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