It is an indisputable fact in the world today that lithium is one of the key chemical elements of the future, one that is critically important for the development of renewable energy sources, electromobility, green industry, and the overall sustainability of our planet. Lithium ore, in the form of jadarite, was discovered in Western Serbia in 2004, with an estimated 10% of the world’s reserves. This paper presents the basic elements and methodology of the spatial plan for implementing the Jadar project for the exploitation and processing of the mineral jadarite in Serbia and the accompanying strategic assessment of the plan’s impact on the environment, which was carried out by the authors of this paper. The procedure for public participation during the development of the plan was analyzed, as well as the subsequent campaign by environmental activists against the exploitation of lithium, and the political decision to invalidate the plan and stop the project. The aim of the paper is to point out the dilemma that arises, in the opinion of the authors, when the problem of lithium exploitation in the initial stages is moved from the domain of spatial planning to the domain of strictly environmental activism, and, in the end, the political domain. The authors take the position that if there is no plan for development, there is no foundation on which to develop and monitor the environmental dimension of development, direct the subsequent design process, or assess the environmental impact for each of the planned facilities, after which process it is possible to make final, binding decisions of a technical, legal, or financial nature. The basic conclusion is that the issue of the potential exploitation of lithium, the most important aspect of which is its environmental impact, must be considered and resolved in several steps, while the role of spatial planning cannot be neglected.

In 2019, Serbia adopted its first national urban policy. This document was established through a communicative process during 2018–2019, formally encouraging urban governance as a practical innovation in Serbia’s planning doctrine. The main aim of this research is to explore institutional capacity development within a live setting of the policy formation process. The participants of this process are the primary subjects of the research. Data was collected through participatory events in four instances during the process. The concept of institutional capacity development is used in this paper as a basic framework to assess knowledge, relational and mobilisation capacity for urban governance. The main contribution of this paper is providing an understanding of the challenges and potentials for establishing urban governance practices in a post-socialist country planning context. Findings indicate an increase in the participants’ knowledge and understanding of governance instruments such that coordination and cooperation are continually unfolding. The identified challenges relate to the mobilisation capacity and fragility of institutions and resistance to change, while a need to deal with complexity and uncertainty remains present.

The link between urban centers and the countryside, including movement of people, goods, capital and other social exchanges, play an important role in processes of rural and urban change of a country. Major demographic and spatial changes have been typical for Serbia in the second half of the 20th century, caused by a dynamic primary urbanization process, i.e. by intense migration trends between rural areas and towns (cities). A special attention in this paper is given to the small urban centers in Serbia (small towns with population of less than 20,000) as the first magnet in proximate contact with the rural surroundings, and the one that therefore could have the greatest influence on organization structure and development prospects of the rural areas. In addition to being difficult to substantiate criteria for urban classification, small towns themselves do not represent a homogeneous group of settlements, and this makes it even harder to put up generalizations that would fit to all the settlements of this kind either within our country or cross-borders. However, here are identified certain common features for the small towns in Central Serbia and their development perspective is analyzed in relation to medium towns and cities of the same territory in consideration. Finally, this paper discusses the importance of policies for small town development in light of a real risk that the process of globalisation may lead to the justification of a new concentration of activities in the large cities, increasing the already significant regional differences in living conditions and economic development.

Population development may reveal either a potential or constraint on functional labour markets and spatial development of the territory in concern. The first results of the 2011 Census in Serbia depict a rather bleak demographic situation, which is only the continuation of population trends from the late 20th and beginning of the 21st century, substantially fuelled by dynamic political and socioeconomic processes featuring Serbia in the past few decades. The focus is on demographic changes in relation to three correlated aspects: 1) intensive ageing process; 2) depopulation and negative natural growth; and 3) migratory movements - population exodus. This paper addresses in particular the spatial consequences and institutional aspects of recent demographic changes and their reflection on urban areas in Serbia. In the past, population movements from rural to urban areas used to colour much of the migratory balance map of the country, however this situation changed due to exhaustion of the ?traditional? demographic reservoirs. Still, urban primacy of the capital city Belgrade has been even intensified with the recent demographic movements, or more precisely, a tissue of the two largest cities in relative proximity - Belgrade and Novi Sad is hypertrophied in a demographic sense. Other urban settlements in Serbia, especially the smaller towns, which are numerous but demographically shrinking, have not been empowered enough to substantiate better links with smaller and larger settlements within urban-rural interface, and their role has been challenged in that respect. Demographic changes, which affect urban growth or decline, are largely to do with border effects, economic and social gaps, educational opportunities, and search of certain ?urban lifestyles?. The latter is particularly stressed regarding the process of ?second demographic transition? which encompassed Serbia and is manifested by changes in the family domain, viz. partnership and parenthood, as well as by plurality of lifestyles, namely for the younger and middle-age generations (20-34 years - dominantly the people in reproductive age) who are able to exercise their residential choices towards bigger urban centres. Finally, this paper addresses the demographic determinants of languishing population growth in Serbia coupled with highly uneven territorial distributions of population and level of development, which in the last decade marks the ratio of 10:1 (measured by GDP/inh.) between the most developed and the least developed regions in Serbia.

Informal development is a specific form of urban sprawl and one of the main challenges for the sustainable development of major cities in Serbia. In this paper we examine this phenomenon with regard to the influence of spatial and urban vulnerabilities of the informal settlements on the housing and environmental deprivation, especially in the context of inhabitants? vulnerability to fuel poverty. The empirical research was carried out on the example of Belgrade?s suburban settlement Kaludjerica. The statistical analysis of the results has shown that the observed energy characteristics of housing have no relevant influence on households? financial burden of energy expenditure, but that they considerably influence households? perception on thermal comfort. The relation between a limited access to public services and the lack of amenities in the settlement and noted high household expenditure on transport has proved to be a particularly important indicator. Based on the perception on overall life commodities, a poor quality of the environment has been recognized as a key factor of deprivation related to housing.

Further expansion of Kolubara lignite basin indicates a necessity to limit future territorial encompass and spatial development of the present semi-urban settlement of Vreoci which is located some 50 km to the south from Belgrade. There is a part of Vreoci which has already been expropriated for the purposes of lignite exploitation, yet the possibility to resettle the town as a whole is still to be validated according to appropriate technical documentation and the feasibility study. Having that estimation of the total cost for such a venture so far showed to be unreliable, the Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning professional team was engaged by the Electric Power of Serbia state company in order to prepare and conduct a questionnaire study on conditions for total resettlement of Vreoci. Before the actual fieldwork took place in June-July 2005, citizens of Vreoci were well informed on the questionnaire content and the interviewing period. The questionnaire was thus conducted through face-to-face interviews with one representative per household who could give all relevant information concerning this study. Though the questionnaire covered information on households as well as on their premises (general facts about constructions built on the household lots), this paper is focused on the first type of information and makes an emphasis on residents' opinion regarding viable/ sustainable options for their resettlement.