Changing Sub-Urban Land Uses to Urban

WIT Press _ Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2020

Waterfront management is a crucial issue in spatial planning of coastal and port cities, with interest in it intensifying. In the current critical time of a multifaceted crisis in Greece-a country with a strongly coastal/insular-based character-the challenge of a comprehensive confrontation of this subject becomes even stronger, mainly due to climate change and local identity. Recognizing that this special category of space is characterized by complexity, the article seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate, emphasizing the need to change the way we face waterfront development and utilize its dynamics.The purpose of this research is the designation of a multidimensional methodological approach which seeks to investigate the capability of public space to assume a role as a unifying element for the reassurance of the city-sea relationship. The Athenian coastal zone is defined as a pilot field of investigation, focusing from the Faliron Bay to the Hellinikon area. The article states its interest on this highly urbanized area, where a concentration of hyper-local infrastructures and functions is confirmed. The objective is to investigate the question as to whether the public space can act as a means for the reinforcement of the urban coastal front, the assurance of its spatial continuity and its attribution to citizens' everyday life. It aims at reopening the discussion through supporting the need for the creation of a coastal sustainable strategy integrated into an overall urban policy with emphasis on new structures of governance and the reassurance of the city-sea relationship with the public space acting as a catalyst. In this rationale, attention is given, inter alia, to the systematic study of the proposed planning practices referring to the pilot area, mapping its spatio-functional transformations as well as structuring a new indicator-based assessment system ready to contribute to the evaluation and measurement of possible future changes and dynamics.

This paper focuses on the replanning of coastal urban areas, using as a case study the sea front of Athens overlooking the Saronic Bay. After a short presentation of the basic characteristics and of the main spatial problems of the above zone, this work concentrates on a wide range of goals and policies which have led to regulatory arrangements and to the implementation of specific interventions. In the above framework, urban planning actions (Regulatory Plan, urban planning projects, special arrangements for land use in the coastal zone, etc.), interventions for the preparation of the Olympic Games 2004 (infrastructure, sports facilities, alterations in the area), as well as approved arrangements for the post-Olympic utilisation of the relative infrastructure are investigated and evaluated. There will also be an attempt to make comparative references to specific points in the policies, planning and interventions, concerning the riverside zone of Hamburg, as well as the case of the Hafensity project, so as to draw out conclusions concerning the relationship between forwarded policies and their spatial effects.

Land Readjustment (LR), as a tool for urban development, was implemented initially in Greece, at the beginning of the 20th century, indicating thus a rapid response of the planning community to the quest for a more efficient land acquisition tool, quite at the same period as in other European countries. A few years later, specific legal provisions for the use of LR to the implementation of town plans (Ktimatikes Omades) were incorporated in the Law Decree of July 17, 1923. However, the implementation of LR was very limited compared to other traditional tools, such as expropriation, and was restricted to a few cases, mainly when there was an urgent need for the implementation of town plans after extensive disasters i.e. bombings, fires and earthquakes. A new form of Land Readjustment, apparently influenced from the relevant French institution of " Remembrement Urbaine " and the German " Baulandumlegung " , was legislated in the late '70s, in the context of the Planning Reform that took place following the Greek Constitution in 1975 (Article 24). However, its application has been once again limited to a few cases. In view of the above, a fundamental research question apparently arises: which are the predominant factors that determined the limited implementation of Land Readjustment in Greece? How LR is related to other innovative ideas, tools and practices which have been transposed in the domestic planning system fundamentally influenced by foreign experience? The paper aspires to present the Greek experience in Land Readjustment, providing an analytical overview of its basic characteristics (legal framework, related policies and applications). It seeks further to shed light into the implementation gap between laws, policies and practice of LR, to discuss how the application of LR is related to the basic features of the land administration and spatial planning system in Greece and to investigate its prospects, with regard to the current challenges of Spatial and Land policies in the country.

HBRC Journal , 2009

The aim of this study is to examine how urban development has affected the social and economic life in four specific semi-rural regions, which are located in the east prefecture of Attica in Greece. These semi-rural regions were affected significantly by social and economic changes, because of substantial new infrastructure development that took place related to a major urban plan development for Attica during the year of 2004. The effect of urban development on the characteristics of residents and local entrepreneurship along with land use changes was examined. The results showed that that there has been a substantial population increase and residential land has increased at the expense of farmland. In addition, relevant results were deducted from the logistic regression models. ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to examine how urban development has affected the social and economic life in four specific semi rural regions, which are located in the east prefecture of Attica in Greece. These semi rural regions were affected significantly by social and economic changes, because of substantial new infrastructure development that took place related to a major urban plan development for Attica during the year of 2004. The effect of urban development on the characteristics of residents and local entrepreneurship along with land use changes was examined. The results showed that that there has been a substantial population increase and residential land has increased at the expense of farmland. In addition, relevant results were deducted from the logistic regression models.

MONU Magazine, 2013

2008

The conference sought to bring together an international and interdisciplinary audience, and in particular, researchers, government officials, company representatives or environmental activists. The aims of the conference were to tackle many of the issues connected with the sustainable management and development of mountainous and island areas, share experiences and work towards solutions.

This paper presents a case study of regenerating the illegally built waterfront area of Heraklion, a city of 150.000 inhabitants in Crete, Greece within the framework of the Olympic Games 2004. The project involved the demolition of informal settlements in a coastal line extended to 1.0 Km, to upgrade the Olympic town of Heraklion. Given that this land policy was employed in such an extent for the first time in Greece, this project can be considered as unique. It is clearly deduced that the 2004 Olympics provided a catalyst for the redevelopment of the waterfront area, by demolishing informally built houses and effectively organizing the relocation and the compensation of their residents. The management of such informalities consists a serious challenge for regulators and planners, in their decision making process within a land administration system.

Spatium, 2015

The subject matter studied in this paper is the morphological aspect of small-scale urban land use with New Belgrade residential super-blocks being the framework of the study. New Belgrade is the largest municipality of the City of Belgrade, the Capital of Serbia, which dominantly features the residential content of collective housing. After a brief description of the theoretical debates regarding urban land, the paper will point out the position of urban morphology as an instrument for studying its use from the perspective of an architect/urban planner. This will be followed by a thorough explanation of residential superblock classification methodology as applied small-scale to the above described location of New Belgrade. The synthesis will include the morphogenetic overview of the findings from the perspective of historical development phases. Residential super-block is defined as a "neighbourhood unit understood as a basic unit for which planning is undertaken" (Bogdanović, 1990), and the concept involved is that of a "city territory bordered with traffic facilities, with minimum possible traffic within the unit itself, morphologically consisting of detached buildings with a diffuse layout" (Kostof, 1991). THEORETICAL BASICS Urban land use: practical and theoretical discourse The practical discourse of urban land use involves a large number of activities with land parcelling and the management of land resources from the economic, social and environmental perspective, with direct consequences for urban morphology (Chapin, 1970; Vernez-Moudon, 2000; Gajić, 2004). From the perspective of practical discourse of urban land use and its implications for morphology, the contemporary topics also include: 1/underground construction; 2/high-rise buildings; 3/urban farms (urban agriculture) (Lovell, 2010). The theoretical discourse of land use refers to the economic location theory (Alonso, 1964; Voigt, 2003; Walker, 2004) concluding that the outcome of socioeconomic processes reflects, among other things, through structural and functional characteristics of land use. Within the conceptual approaches to urban planning, by understanding the role and criticism of land use, the following issues come up:

Ersa Conference Papers, 2006

Expanding urban areas face growing land use conflicts particularly in the peri-urban zone, which is defined as a zone outside the city, occupied both by 'classical' rural land uses, and construction of road infrastructure and commercial shopping centers, which result as rapid changes. These changes of the peri-urban zone lead to complex patterns of land uses as evidenced in terms of the intensity and structure. To the extent that modern societies need to understand such patterns in order to formulate appropriate guidance policies, it is interesting to develop a relevant framework of analysis. It is necessary to assess land-use change in order to assist urban planning and related decision-making. The proposed approach explores an analytical framework combining GIS and a system of PSI (pressure-state-impact) indicators aimed at the analysis of urban growth and land use change in the peri-urban zone of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is the second largest city of Greece which is located in the Northern part of the country and has approximately one million inhabitants.

2018

Land Use formulation is a part of spatial and urban planning in cities, which is inextricably related to the detailed city-plans, development plans and masterplans, deriving immediately from the state's responsibility and authority. Cityplans define centralities, networks, geometrical characteristics and therefore land uses. However, several times has been observed, that the predicted land uses are disregarded both by individuals and authorities in the local level. Informality in urban planning, in Greece, encompasses a variety of illegalities regarding informal settlements, informal individual housing, disrespect of building regulations as well as illegalities in land use policies. The latter, regarding informal land uses and governance, will be explored in this paper as observed in the Greek environment which will also be specialized in a specific municipality in Athens. Many synonyms have been used in scientific research and literature to refer to informal land use. These inc...

The discourse concerning the quality of life, sustainable development and environmental protection is currently dominant in public fora. Furthermore, the origins of many conflicts and tensions in peri-urban metropolitan areas are closely related to land-use and development pressures that incite environmental disputes and social conflicts. This work aims to analyze the evolving social and geographical dimension of conflicts in the peri-urban metropolitan area of Athens by focusing on social pressures related to environmental conflicts and governance issues observed during the period 2007-2012. The period under consideration marks a turning point in Greek society as it starts with dynamic economic development in the first years of the 21st century and ends with a serious economic depression with multiple effects on social and political aspects of life. Our approach focuses on " environmental conflicts " which are defined here as conflicts where the question of the environment is used as a main issue by at least one of the adversaries. This research aims to present a general view of the evolution of the environmental movement at regional level, in the region of Attica, during a decade in which Greek society faced rapid and radical changes. After having presented our methodological approach, this research will put forward the main results concerning geographical distribution and their relation to some social factors. Cartographie de la dynamique d'utilisation des terres, conflits environnementaux et pressions sociales dans la zone péri-urbaine d'Athènes Résumé. Le discours sur la qualité de vie, le développement durable et la protection de l'environnement est actuellement dominant dans les forums publics. En outre, les origines de nombreux conflits et tensions dans les régions métropolitaines péri-urbaines sont étroitement liées à l'utilisation des terres et le développement des pressions qui attisent les conflits environnementaux et des disputes sociales. Ce travail vise à analyser la dimension sociale et géographique des conflits en évolution dans la région métropolitaine péri-urbaine d'Athènes en mettant l'accent sur les pressions sociales liées aux conflits environnementaux et les questions de gouvernance observées au cours de la période 2007-2012. La période considérée marque un tournant dans la société grecque comme elle commence par un développement économique dynamique dans les premières années du 21 e siècle et se termine par une dépression économique grave avec de multiples effets sur la vie sociale et politique. Notre approche se concentre sur les « conflits environnementaux » qui sont ici définis comme des conflits où la question de l'environnement est utilisée comme une question principale par au moins l'un des adversaires. Cette recherche a pour but de présenter une vue d'ensemble de l'évolution du mouvement environnemental au niveau régional, dans la région de l'Attique, au cours d'une décennie où la société grecque a fait face à des changements rapides et radicaux. Après avoir présenté l'approche méthodologique, nous allons mettre en évidence les principaux résultats de la recherche concernant la répartition géographique et leur relation avec certains facteurs sociaux. Mots-clés. Conflits environnementaux – Disputes sociales – Espace périurbain – Crise – Athènes – Grèce.

2014

This paper aims to explore in terms of land using in urban morphology in the Albanian reality. The distinct lifestyle of an urbanized society create a wide range of market demands to be taken for the developments of transportation, infrastructure, residential and recreational uses. There is a lack of study of the target group and its impacts on housing, in the Albanian reality. Appraising methods, techniques and practices of housing in post-socialist countries, is more difficult than it appears. Because of a socialist system for more than 50 years have been a few experts in urban design. In that periods had been no participation in the decision making. After the ’90, spontaneous development, uncontrolled by the urban policies, has started in the studied area. The problem is that increasing density of urban growth in that area is not matched with appropriate understanding of how urban policies affect the formation of social and spatial patterns. This area cannot be understood as an i...

Several Mediterranean cities underwent important morphological changes in the last century. This article deals with the transition from compact towards dispersed urban form and the consequent changes in Land Cover Relationships (LCRs) observed from 1960 to 2009 in Attica (Greece), a mono-centric, dense city region. We analyzed the long-term spatial distribution of four basic land cover classes to test if the 'compact growth' observed up to early 1990s and the 'sprawl' observed afterwards differently affect LCRs. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multivariate procedures were used to verify this hypothesis. Results put in evidence similarities and differences in Land Cover Changes (LCCs) and LCRs observed during the two urban phases. Per-capita built-up area was found significantly higher in the 'sprawl' than in 'compact growth' phase. Cropland was the land cover class with the highest probability to undergo edification in both periods, but a significant conversion rate from forests towards cropland and pastures (in turn converted into built-up areas) was also observed in the 'sprawl' phase. This may be considered an indirect effect of urbanization due to sprawl-driven land fragmentation and recurrent fires induced by illegal housing and land speculation. We finally discussed how the changing LCRs may represent, at regional scale, a possible target for policies mitigating land consumption in 'shrinking' Mediterranean cities.

HISTORY - URBANISM - RESILIENCE . 17th IPHS Conference, 2016

Based on literature and archival research along with specific plans, the study considers the different transformations of the Greek urban block in relation to street network, built and open space. Case studies such as Thessaloniki, Athens, Patra, Serres, offer the opportunity to highlight the evolution of the Greek urban block through representative examples of urban development in specific periods of Greek history: in the neoclassic city of the 19 th century, during the beginning of 20 th century, during the interwar period (1923-1940) and in the postwar city during 1950s and 1970s. The investigation focuses on the general historical framework connected to urban development, whereas specific masteplans showcase the practice of each period respectively. moreover, the study highlights parameters, which form, reform or transform the urban blocks, such as planning principles and design tools. The objective of this research is to analyze characteristics and qualities of the morphology of urban blocks in order to understand its importance in the organization of the city.

City, Territory and Architecture, 2017

The paper asserts that each new urban and land planning approach, (ranging from the environment assessment procedures and land suitability analysis introduced in the past, to the newer methods of resilience and urban metabolism) should be considered as useful support tools for the territorial government, but none of them in itself is sufficient to overcome the main issues that had a negative influence on the effectiveness of planning, and that contributed to the disrepute of the comprehensive planning tools. To safeguard the environmental resources it is necessary to assure a programmatic continuity of the political choices at different levels, both public and institutional, and of the private–public relations, nowadays overbalanced because of the generalized use of urban equal distribution construction rights and because of planning agreements on varying comprehensive plan, often without any justifiable reasons. To disentangle through the networks that connects the construction sec...