Depopulated and Abandoned Areas in Serbia in the 21st Century—From a Local to a National Problem

Depopulated or abandoned spaces are a consequence of the emptying of settlements and the complete disappearance of the human factor in the use of space. The aim of this paper is to determine the size and structure of this space—clusters that can be considered abandoned at the regional level. In the focus of this paper is the space at the district level in Serbia, within which significant changes in land use occurred in the period 1990–2018. Time series of formal databases and data obtained by GIS tools were analysed in order to observe the changes in the structure of surfaces and to define the trend of merging or increasing the empty space during the last two decades. This paper analyses planning documents and strategies in order to determine with which problems the state identifies abandoned areas and what planning solutions are possible. A new method for calculating the homogenization of abandoned space is presented. The results indicate the homogenization of the abandoned space in the border regions in the south of Serbia, as well as major changes in land use, such as reforestation and reclamation of agricultural land.