Sustainable rural development in Serbia - relationship between population dynamicss and environment

In this paper the relationship between populatiOn and the environment, and their influence on rural sustainability in Serbia, using quantitative typology of rural areas will be examined. The typology is based on the net relative change of population in rural areas in Serbia, according to the difference between the number of inhabitants at the end of the studied period (2011) and a hypothetical population that each rural settlement would have if the population in base year (1961) was changed proportionally to the change of total rural population. Research results indicate types of population dynamics of rural areas with different scale and intensity of environmental degradation: progressive type with favorable human and economic potentials, strong urban influence and huge environmental transformation; stagnant type with advanced agricultural and demographic dimension which imposed pressures to the natural environment; regressive type with heterogeneous demographic, social and economic features, and different impacts on natural and social environment, and dominant regressive type of rural areas highly characterised by the deficient in human and economic potential and preserved natural resources. Based on analysed rural particularities it can be concluded that the different human, environmental and economic potentials and obstacles of determined types of rural areas should be the starting point in defining appropriate sustainable strategies and development directions