The evaluation of the present anchorage condition and the development tendency in Zadar County

Abstract

As result of consistently more rigorous and demanding regulations on the protection of marine environment and coastal landscape, as well as following the requirements for integral management of coastal area and sustainable development of nautical tourism, any new intervention in the highly sensitive littoral area is subject to strict assessments. Accordingly, the development of new infrastructure objects of nautical tourism is frequently questioned. Due to the continual increase of nautical vessels that sail and permanently or temporarily stay at the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, the reception capacity of nautical ports is limited and consequently navigators, especially those with bigger vessels, deploy anchorages as their destination points. Respecting the current reality and the necessity to develop nautical tourism as an important economic function in Croatia this paper gives a systematic analysis of the anchoring issue. The authors research the method and the need for anchoring on free and institutional anchorages and evaluate the role of anchorages in the economy. The aim of the paper is to analyze the current situation based on the example of the Zadar County, especially the spatial-geographical conditions for the development of anchorages in the Zadar County. The goal of the paper is to establish the interdependence between the institutional anchoring and development of nautical tourism in the Zadar County.