The book “Zadar's Riva as the Space of Urbanism” by Full Professor Inga Tomić Koludrović, Željka Tonković, PhD, and Željka Zdravković, PhD (edited by Mirko Petrić), is the result of research conducted by a task group of the University of Zadar’s Department of Sociology, within the strategy on the University’s cooperation with the local community.

Identity research, cultural context and socio-spatial structure of the Zadar’s promenade Riva are analysed and interpreted in the book. The research has been on the one hand theoretically and methodologically realised relying on the tradition of a functional and structural analysis of urban spaces, and on the other hand on the interactional analysis of the relation between people and their cultural and urban landscape.  Both quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used (street surveys of the inhabitants and local visitors of the Peninsula, street surveys of the tourists, the observation of a utilisation regime of the space, and interviews with cultural and scientific workers and entrepreneurs).

The research results have demonstrated that the Riva is an extremely important segment of the town’s identity, and that it needs to be observed in the context of the town’s historical centre, which is not currently fully functionally coded, due to the changes occurring over time. Nevertheless, the research results show that the Riva users of today consider no changes in its current appearance are welcome or necessary. Therefore, careful thought and planning are necessary in case of possible changes of certain segments of its function, keeping in mind its historical, contemporary, and future social context. In other words, in reconsidering the urban arrangement of the Riva segments and its contact zone in the Peninsula, the existing content needs to be built on in a direction that will primarily contribute to the quality of life of the local population, the town’s atmosphere, landscape, and local customs.Such recommendations for formulating public policies are in accordance with new approaches in reconsidering historical urban space that enable to build on the existing utilisation regimes, but in a manner that they augment, and not decrease, urban and cultural qualities of the space.

The research on which the study is based was financed by the Administrative Department for Construction Engineering and Environmental Protection of the Town of Zadar, and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Sports, within the project “Croatian Society: Identity, Mobility and New Technologies (MZOŠ, 269-0762385-2380), coordinated by Full Professor Inga Tomić-Koludrović.

The book “Zadar's Riva as the Space of Urbanism” is available in the University’s bookstore Citadela for 150 kuna. The students and employees of the University have a discount.