FUNCTIONAL TRANSFORMATION OF SETTLEMENTS IN PRESHEVA VALLEY

Besides population and morphology, functions of settlements represent another important feature of settlements. Heterogeneity of the functional structure of rural and urban areas, different positions of their role within the settlements network affects different level and direction of their transformation. Settlements as permanent places of concentration of population and activities have internal and external functions. Internal functions results from the settlement functional elements and relations between them, and through them integrate external functions with nearby settlements that gravitate towards them or vice versa. The aim of this paper is to analyze functional features, level and directions of functional transformation of settlements network in Presheva Valley, different level of functional transformations between albanian settlements and those maynly inhabited by serb ethnity.