3. SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA
So far, the Republic of Croatia has got no authority constituted
at the official, state level that would deal with Croatian and
international geographic names in systematic and organised
way. The competencies for changing the names of
administrative units are regulated by the laws. Thus, the House
of Representatives in the Croatian National Parliament makes
the decisions referring to the areas of counties, cities and
municipalities (name, area and the residence of the county, city
and municipality), and the county assemblies are responsible
for giving names and making decisions about names and
borders of settlements areas. Borders and names are kept in the
Register of Spatial Units in the State Geodetic Administration.
The users of geographical names have great problems already in
using the names of settlements in the Republic of Croatia
because of frequent changes in recent years and because of
printing and other mistakes in official documents. The problems
(inconsistency, incorrectness, uncertainty) also appear in using
the names of other states and in using our traditional names of
foreign geographic features (e. g. Kopenhagen — Kobenhavn).
Geographic names have great significance for each country and
nation since they reflect landscape, express national identity
and are cultural heritage. They are used in all aspects of society,
from production of geodetic plans and topographic maps,
publication activity, education and urban planning, to
environmental protection, tourism, economy, foreign affairs
etc, therefore, it is necessary to pay larger attention and to
organize the collaboration of various professions.
Since the problem of correct usage of foreign and homeland
geographic names is present in state official documents,
cadastral plans, topographic and other maps, encyclopedias,
school and other atlases, on the radio, television, internet and in
the newspapers it is necessary to work on the standardisation of
national and international geographic names, on the production
of toponymic guides, national geographic register, abbreviated
geographic register etc. (Buljat 1997).
According to Official Topographic and Cartographic
Information System - STOKIS (State Geodetic Administration
1995) an object can have more names that are distinguished by
the type. Three types of names are foreseen:
- Geographic names, generally used object name
- Second name, folk or tourist description existing
along with the geographic name
- Classification name, abbreviations, numerical signs
etc.
According to Topographic Information System of the Republic
of Croatia - CROTIS (State Geodetic Administration 2000) the
toponymes present an object entity classified into the following
groups and then subgroups:
- Regionymes
- area (region), field, lawn
- Oronymes
- mountain, mountain-range, foothills
- pass, valley, cliff, gorge, crest, slope
- pick, saddle, rock
- Hydronyms
- bay, cove, cape
-sea region
96
^ Names of islands
- islands
- rock, crest, sea shallow.
3.1. Project TOPONIMIS, the first phase
The entire project TOPONIMIS, as sub-project of STOKIS is
therefore intended for creating an adequate toponymic digital
database that would contain geographic names adjusted to:
- Accelerated production of all maps and maps of
related presentations, with an accent on official
cartographic publications
- Consequent and correct usage of geographic names
for official cartographic publications
- Various GIS users of spatial data
- Official usage.
The first phase is planned for:
- Creation of an adequate information subsystem that
would encompass all geographic names according to
the defined logical structure that in any way appears
in official usage of state maps,
- Categorisation of toponyms in accordance with the
STOKIS and CROTIS,
- The establishment of contacts between adequate
institutions (State Geodetic Administration, Croatian
Geodetic Institute, Croatian Academy of Sciences and
Arts, Croatian School Cartography, Croatian State
Archives, Croatian Hydrographic Institute,
Lexicographic Institute "Miroslav Krleza" etc.) and
professionals.
Within the scope of the project TOPONIMIS, the research has
been carried out that led to the working version of an
establishment concept for the information system that would
encompass all geographic names according to the defined
logical structure that in some way appear in official usage on
state maps. It includes the following names:
- Settlements (towns, part of towns — districts, villages)
supplemented by the names of hamlets and
categorised according to defined criteria,
- Geographic entities (areas, lawns, islands, peninsulas,
capes etc.)
- Those connected with hydrography (sea, bays, inlets,
harbours, ports, shallow waters, lakes, rivers, streams,
canals, swamps etc.)
- Those connected with relief (massif, mountains,
mountain-ranges, foothills, passes, valleys, cliffs,
crests, peaks, rocks, caves, steep rocks, etc.)
- Those connected with political, administrative and
statistical classification (names of neighboring
countries, counties, cities, municipalities, settlements,
cadastral municipalities, etc.) (State Geodetic
Administration 2002).
3.2. Continuation of the project
In the second phase of the project it is planned to do the
following:
- The active involvement of adequate institutions and
professionals who are directly of indirectly connected
to the project
- Establishment of official contact with United Nations
Group of Expert on Geographical Names
- Gathering relevant information and experiences from
other countries
The third
following
Along w
process o
the stan
conducte
Administ
whole co
stated th:
standardi:
overtake
In this e
general i
professio:
databases
name of 1
of State €
Article 4-
the. reg
Administ
but oblig:
4.1 Sou
The ong
Geolnfor
and one
in the St:
to produ
project d
geograph
stand-alo
connecte
attributes
collecting
database
(TK25),
and field
the main
than obv
stored in
Strong ec
only in :
attributio
defined ii
During d
existing
