Landscape protection and management in Greece: Problems, perspectives, and policies

An assessment of all actors involved to make suggestions for the establishment of the adequate bodies, services and mechanisms that would help for a new landscape strategy and policy in Greece was presented. The renewal of built-up areas and urbanization, the exploitation of landscapes as a source of economic growth and the conversion of rural and agricultural practices led to a significant landscape change. This transformation does not allow to conceive of Greek landscape as the locus of normal development. Towns and villages, the built-up environment was renewed with the use of reinforced concrete

Towards a sustainable spatial planning and development in Greek islands and highlands

Highlands and islands are the underdeveloped and marginalized areas of Greece in which a series of crucial planning and development problems occur. The paper attempts a description of those areas not only in terms of physical spatial structure but also in terms of socio-economic dependence from the developed 'integrated' - regions of the country (urban and industrial areas). It is essential to describe the structural features of these areas in order to understand their true needs, so that efforts can be made towards the creation of a planning model, which will integrate these areas, using the benefits provided by new technologies. To this purpose the paper investigates an implementation example (pilot project), in the central Mediterranean Sea, which has been developed in the framework of EU trans-national cooperation programs, in the field of spatial and environmental planning matters in order to show that ITC advanced technologies can reinforce participatory planning processes in the new 'network society'. © 2007 WIT Press

Environmental policy and spatial planning in Greece. Institutional aspects

The integration of the environmental dimension into sectoral and regional policies constitutes a dominant concern of the current EU strategy for sustainable development. Thus, physical planning as an instrument of environmental policy and its combination with environmental planning, both at a policy as well as implementation level is a key pursuit in almost all European countries. In Greece, the adoption of a concept about a rational and unified approach of physical and environmental planning has met with many difficulties. The aim of this paper is to contribute towards a critical approach of recent developments, mainly in the field of the institutional framework for spatial and environmental planning in Greece. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers

'Glocalising' urban landscapes: Athens and the 2004 Olympics

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Maritime and coastal spatial planning: The case of Greece and the Mediterranean

Maritime and coastal areas play an important role in the development of human activities and are a substantial influence on the economies of their respective hinterlands. Seas and coasts are among the most complex, vulnerable and sensitive to all natural ecosystems, and their management presents various problems and difficulties especially in our era of climate change in which coastal cities and populations face a range of serious threats (including rising sea levels). The singularity of these areas necessitates an equally singular handling of the issues of their land development and management. At the start of the 21st century the critical issue of the spatial regulation and organization of the seas and coasts is a key priority for Greece and the Mediterranean in the era of climate change. There can be no doubt that the Mediterranean's coastal and marine areas are facing ever greater risks from natural disasters and human pressures alike. Given the experience of EU and UN programs and projects initiated and run by other international organizations which have shown that implementing sustainable spatial development in the coasts and seas is anything but easy, there is clearly a great need for coordinated action and co-operation at the transnational and international level. During the past decade the EU has adopted a strategy for the maritime environment which was incorporated in an Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) (a European vision for the seas and the oceans). In the framework of the above policy the Commission launched in 2008 a road map for the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) as the basic means for the implementation of the (IMP) and a fundamental tool for the sustainable development of the European seas and coasts. The paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the planning instruments and policies launched by the EU in relation to maritime and coastal areas and adopted by the competent public agencies and bodies in Greece and Mediterranean. Furthermore, the paper argues for the substantial implementation of the policy documents relating to Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and the Spatial Maritime Planning in the framework of EU strategy for the Integrated Maritime Policy. © 2011 WIT Press

Towards sustainable spa tourism activities in Greece

Thermal (Spa) tourism in Greece has been developed since the beginning of the 19th century thanks to numerous significant thermal springs spread all over the country. After having reached its time of prosperity during '50s, 60s and 70s Spa tourism entered a period of recession and decline. For the last 20 years Greek spa towns and especially their infrastructure (thermal installations) have been suffering from abandonment and degradation. Parallel to these developments, some new categories of visitors / clients of thermal springs have also appeared as a consequence of the broader socio-economic and cultural changes. This paper presents and comments on some results of a research conducted by the authors in the most important spa towns of Greece (Edipsos, Kamena Vourla, Loutra Ypatis) which represent 47% of the spa tourists. The principal objective was to survey the basic characteristics of the users of thermal springs (by questioning them) as well as the opinion of local authorities and managers of companies/enterprises operating in the area. Particularly, the results concerning the profile of spa tourists have a special scientific interest since they prove that commonly held opinions and ideas in relation to spa tourism are often fully mistaken. Besides the research shows the emerging structural planning problems derived from the different needs of 'classic' and 'modern'(contemporary) spausers opposing each other and thus preventing local economies and societies to get full profit from a special/alternative form of tourism, traditionally considered as a comparative advantage of the country. © 2009 WIT Press

Towards sustainable planning in the era of climate change: Spatial policies for built-up areas in Greece

This paper is a critical approach of the institutional framework and the related policies to environmental planning in contemporary Greek towns. Specifically, the paper investigates the achievements as well as the malfunctions that exist at the institutional, administrative and political levels in the sphere of sustainable planning of cities and tries to elucidate the lessons learned from the experience of Greek energy planning policy for the urban environment and development over recent decades. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Spatial planning and development in tourist destinations: A survey in a Greek spa town

Thermalism - now known as spa tourism - is an age-old activity in Greece, with a long and rich tradition. Through the millennia, Greece has not only managed to maintain the activity of thermalism intact, but has developed it even further, particularly in more recent times (especially since the beginning of the 19th century). Until the middle of the 20th century, Greece invested in quite a high number of spa facilities at various hot springs located throughout the country. Both domestic and foreign visitors were offered a very satisfactory level of spa services - mainly of a therapeutic nature - for a long period of time in the recent past. However, as perceptions concerning thermalism began to change at the end of the 20th century, new, more 'modern' facilities, exclusively dedicated to offering luxury services for health and well-being began to 'pop up' in the same areas, next to the 'classic' type of therapeutic spa facilities. It is certain that however much contemporary trends may force spa tourism to swing toward providing increasingly less therapeutic services, the relegation or supersession of the 'classic' type of facilities and services in the end will not constitute a solution, especially for local communities and the development of those areas. The present article is the result of extensive field research (the completion of questionnaires) conducted by the authors in the spa town of Kamena Vourla (the second-most important spa town in Greece). It is within the framework outlined above that the article attempts to sketch the various characteristics/profiles of visitors to 'modern' and 'classic' style facilities. The ultimate aim of this research is to suggest that the new type of facilities and their 'tourists' do not constitute a one-way street for the local development of hot springs areas; rather, on the contrary, they may indeed pose a trap if not broadened and suitably combined with the 'classic' type of therapeutic facilities already in place. Finally, based on the conclusions drawn from the research conducted, the article attempts to determine a suitable form of organization that may prove advantageous to spa tourism destinations. It is hoped that this type of organization might help these areas experience viable economic, social, environmental and other development, as viewed within the context of contemporary perceptions and trends. © 2011 WIT Press

Derelict building installations and infrastructures in Greek Spa Towns: The case of Kamena Vourla and Ypati

The evolution of thermal tourism in Greece has caused the construction of numerous imposing building complexes, installations of treatment (spa centers) and hotels (around important thermal springs), which formed the initial cores of future urban development. During the last two decades, Greek thermal tourism entered a phase of decline. Consequently the above mentioned installations (built up during a long period of flourishing in the 19th and 20th centuries), and especially those found within urban areas, are abandoned and downgraded. Therefore these spa centers deserve the appropriate (architectural) restoration and (urban) renewal in order to reassemble the urban space by filling in the existing 'urban holes', modernize their infrastructure and be able to successfully compete in a more difficult international economic environment. The Greek spa towns of Kamena Vourla and Ypati are a characteristic example of the above mentioned situation. In Kamena Vourla half of the treatment installations/buildings are completely abandoned while in Ypati the main spa center core is operating in a rather downgraded building construction and several hotels are also empty and nearly ruined. This paper aims to investigate the possible ways for the restoration, reuse and urban integration of the abandoned installations in spa towns for the benefit of sustainable thermal tourism in Greek regions in the short and long term. © 2008 WIT Press

Hazards that threaten Greek wetlands: The case of Lake Koronia

Wetlands all over the world have been recognized as some of the most productive, multifunctional and dynamic ecosystems and they are under protection according to European Union legislation. However, they are under imminent threat due to increasing pollution, intensification of agriculture and rapid development activities. Lake Koronia is one of the eleven wetlands protected under the Ramsar Convention in Greece. However, it has been undergoing great degradation during the last twenty years due to the lack of a proper environmental management plan. The main activities in the wetland watershed are agriculture, industry and urban development. The aims of the present paper are to identify and represent the major ecological changes that have recently occurred, the real problems that threaten the ecosystem of Lake Koronia, as well as to make proposals that should be taken into consideration for the proper management and the conservation of the protected wetland