Croatia

Final Project for World Geography at UGA

Introduction

Croatia is the worlds 23rd most visited country, located in Eastern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula. It is most notably known for having an extremely popular summer vacation destination for Europeans. Due to its heritage locations located in and around the city travelers from all over the world are drawn to Croatia. Croatia has a very high quality of life and his home to nearly 4,000,000 people. With Croatia’s hi surge of tourism they are slated to bring in about €10.5 billion a year on tourism. Some notable information about Croatia is they have 1244 islands, the 127th largest country in the world, and 1/3 of it is covered by forests, national parks, and 2 natural reserves.

The gorgeous city of Trogir in Croatia

Environmental Issues

Croatia is a Central European and Mediterranean Country that borders the Adriatic Sea. Some of the main concerns of the Croatian environment are the air pollution levels. The topic that I am going to focus on when it comes to Croatia and their environmental issues will be the concern with Industrial pollution and how that is effecting air quality for its citizens and tourists. We can make strong note of the poor air after The World Health Organization's guidelines considered, the air quality in Croatia is moderately unsafe. After the same study researchers cited that cities and rural areas worldwide are affected by the rising air pollution levels. It is highly encouraged that when planning a trip, consider health status, age, destination, length of trip and season to mitigate the effects of air pollution.

Unhealthy levels of air quality and pollution in the water ways.

Causes of Air Pollution

    Croatian health officials believe that the leading factors of air pollution in Croatia come from vehicle emissions, combustion plants, oil and gas refilling, and the chemicals and plastics industry. Industry leaders also believe that some driving leaders of air pollution also come form burning of fossil fuels, agricultural activities, waste in landfills, exhaust from factories and industries, mining operations, indoor air pollution, and natural events. Factories contributed to air and water pollution, as a result of the gases and smoke they give off and their unregulated dumping. Officials believe that urbanization and industrialization will continue to grow in Croatia, but if the government can contain the contamination and pollution processes form the sources before it reaches the environment they believe they can begin to control the environment and make strides in repairing the environment and air pollution in Croatia.

Croatian capital of Dubrovnik struggles with bad air quality

Urbanization of Croatia

The history of Croatia is very unique, as it has gone through its fair share of rulers and former names. From the 16th century to the end of the 17 century Croatia was ruled by Muslim ottoman empire. After the end of World War II Croatia was then known as Yugoslavia. During the time period of Yugoslavia the Croatian people were under the influence of the USSR. In the year of 1991, June 25th Croatia declared independence and dissolved it’s association with Yugoslavia. 

After the former rule of the ottoman empire and the USSR and after the change from Yugoslavia to Croatia. They began to engage in talks with the EU. This was all to set up a new government and a NATO membership. In 2013 Croatia took his place as the 28th member in the European Union. Overall Croatia has come along way from former rule and is now an independent country with a extremely historic city and story. With that being said now Croatia is one of the most visited cities and has one of the highest tourism rates in the world. 

Roman time arena in Pula, Croatia

The Solution

Five ways that we could easily reduce the air pollution quality in Croatia is finding more efficient ways of driving and transportation. Using more Energy efficient appliances. Some of the biggest contributions to air pollution in Croatia are vehicle emissions consumption plants and plastic industries I believe that if Croatian government where to put some limits on the levels of pollution they were allowed per year that could definitely cut back on the air quality and allow for a healthier quality of air in Croatia. Overall there are various factors that can go into cutting air pollution and that starts with a change from all industries and distributors in the country. 

Conclusion

All in all, Croatia is suffering with their pollution levels in the beautiful cities, that are constantly filled with tourists. Due to the overwhelming amount of tourists that come to the country along with the industries pollution there are multiple factors being put in operation to put a halt on the levels of rising air pollution in Croatia. With that being said Croatia is still one of the most traveled to destinations in the world and improving the air quality can only allow for a larger amount of tourists. 

Works cited

Belanger, Craig. “Eds.b.ebscohost.com.” Georgia UGA Libraries, 2021. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&hid=103&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHNoaWImc2l0ZT1lZHMtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d.

Bradbury, Paul. “Environment in Croatia: Facts, Laws, Initiatives & Groups.” Total Croatia, March 13, 2021. https://www.total-croatia.com/environment-in-croatia/.

BRIEFS, RESULTS. “Croatia: Reducing Wastewater Pollution in Sensitive Coastal Areas of the Adriatic Sea.” World Bank, January 4, 2018. https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2018/01/04/croatia-reducing-wastewater-pollution-in-sensitive-coastal-areas-of-the-adriatic-sea.

David-Barrett, Liz. “Croatia.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., July 26, 2000. https://www.britannica.com/place/Croatia.

Marston, Sallie A. World Regions in Global Context: Peoples, Places, and Environments. Boston: Pearson, 2017.

Nationsonline.org, Klaus Kästle -. Croatia - Country Profile - Nations Online Project. Accessed September 28, 2021. https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/croatia.htm.

Porembiński, Kamil. “Croatia Country Briefing - the European Environment - State and Outlook 2015.” European Environment Agency, February 18, 2015. https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/2015/countries/croatia.

University, Stanford. “Feral Atlas.” Feral Atlas, 2021. https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/.

Wilbanks, Carri. Dubrovnik from the Sky. Photograph. Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 1, 2019.

 

Location

The gorgeous city of Trogir in Croatia

Unhealthy levels of air quality and pollution in the water ways.

Croatian capital of Dubrovnik struggles with bad air quality

Roman time arena in Pula, Croatia