Physical Expansion and Subregional Disparities in the Growing Metropolitan Region of Belgrade

Abstract

The Belgrade metropolitan region has always been one of the key elements of Serbia’s main development axes. Despite more than a decade-long international isolation and visible environmental, social and economic problems, Belgrade has continued with its territorial expansion and facilitated the creation of a further gap between the country’s underdeveloped southern, border and mountain regions on the one hand, and the more developed northern regions on the other hand. Since there is a specific disparity in growth of the different municipalities of the Belgrade region, in this paper we will focus on two of them which in the last decade have been faced with the biggest population growth. One of the analysed areas belongs to the inner urban municipalities and the other one could be characterized as the suburban one. Their example may serve as a reference point in understanding sub-regional disparities and the process of changing lifestyles and spatial patterns within the Belgrade metropolitan region.