ABSTRACT: Successful and sustainable development of county ports implies identification and assessment of all the elements that affect their performance. Several factors determine port’s performance out of which the most significant one is its position, usually in the centre of a town/settlement. This situation is the most common in the Mediterranean countries where small ports are usually in the centre of a settlement. Such a location of ports affects their urban and spatial planning, i.e., it affects planning the development of county ports. To determine a direction of development of any port (of county importance), analysis and assessment of the current port conditions as well as the role and proportion of its operations are a mandatory prerequisite. Currently defined criteria on the classification of ports open to public transport (of all categories) of county importance (in Croatia) are rigid and imprecise, and therefore, cannot be a credible element to assess ports open to public transport of county or regional importance not matter of their specific attributes. Therefore, this article, based on the conducted analysis, presents new criteria model on the classification of ports open to public transport of county importance – a methodology that can be applied when analysing the current condition of county ports in Croatia based upon eight ports of county importance in Zadar County – Ports of Preko, Biograd, Tkon, Brbinj/Lučina, Fortica, Zaglav, Silba/Žalić and Pag.

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