Avgi Vassi

Nowadays, due to economic crisis, the number of "abandoned", empty or dilapidated listed or historic buildings of Greek cities and settlements is constantly increasing. In order to protect and enhance the Greek tangible cultural heritage, it is necessary to promote actions that give motives to owners or users of historic buildings to preserve them, by providing tools and financial support in the particularly increased costs of restoration and consolidation works of their necessary continuous maintenance. The program “Preserve” introduced by the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy, and more specifically the General Secretariat of Spatial Planning & Urban Environment, relates to interventions in designated as listed or monuments or buildings within historic sites and traditional settlements and historic buildings. The interventions will include facade cleaning (with gentle water jet to remove air pollutants or anti-graffiti painting for protection against vandalism),...

This work deals with public participation in developing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) in Greece, provided that SUMP development procedures require a high level of public engagement in several stages. Its importance lies on the fact that although the European Commission has provided specific guidelines, imposing a distinct framework for public engagement in developing a SUMP, Greek practices and maturity in participatory planning in general and sustainable mobility planning in particular are lagging behind the common know-how and practice of other European member states. The study attempts to establish an integrated methodology that combines classical and ICT-enabled tools and approaches in order a higher public engagement level to be achieved. This methodology is implemented and tested in a specific case study, the city of Rethymno—Crete, Greece. More specifically, the proposed methodology incorporates traditional techniques for gathering commuting data from citizens and visitors (i.e. questionnaires, mini surveys, workshops and public meetings) as well as innovative ones (i.e. map-based questionnaires, inclusive web-based participatory tools), used for data collection on public opinions for future planning purposes. Emphasis is placed on the development of a web-based crowdsourcing tool as a key for gathering ideas and views on sustainable urban mobility issues. Additionally, particular emphasis is placed upon exploring barriers to participation as well as ways to eliminate such barriers and support a more active engagement of citizens in sustainable mobility planning exercises in the Greek context.

The lack of defined land uses in most parts of Greece (80%) has led to multiple environmental problems and phenomena of informal (arbitrary) construction with secondary side effects, such as a lack of basic technical and environmental infrastructure, unfair competition among private investors, the strengthening of climate change (increase in the number of urban diffusion) and the decline of natural and cultural resources. The Greek urban policy, over the last 100 years, has not succeeded in limiting these problems and for that reason the new Law 4759/2020 is expected to promote the development of a more efficient spatial planning system reform implemented through the Local Urban Plans (LUPs) and the Special Urban Plans (SUPs) that are funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). These programs will contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage and to the development of productive activities at both local and national levels, especially on the sectors of renewable ener...

The road traditionally accommodated traffic but also leisure activities, social activities and even work. However, technology has dynamically entered our lives, enabling us to replicate activities in public that used to be private. It is considered that the lines between public space and private territory, human interaction and human alienation are becoming more and more blurred. The more interaction between digital and physical environments is increasing, the more our cities are changing. This paper intends to explore how urbanisation and spatial hierarchies are redefined by technological transitions. The first part of this research is a literature review, on the studies that concern the interrelation among three key components: people, space and ICT. The second part of this research highlights the proven consequences of technological progress in the shape and structure of the city by studying the evolution and interaction of the urban road and transport technologies (automobiles, ...

In recent years, there has been an exponential increase of hazards that may threat humanity in a global basis-depicting the correlation of climate crisis with the frequency and intensity of large-scale natural disasters recorded worldwide, like mega-fires, floods and hurricanes, with social, economic and environmental devastating consequences. However, apart from the aforementioned natural disasters and any possible technological hazards, humanity was recently threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, facing the most challenging sanitary crisis of the latest years. Cities on a global scale need to adapt directly to the new extraordinary conditions, in order to meet the various challenges and minimize losses. The sudden and severe crisis of COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for rapid adaptive measures in order to increase societies' coping capacity and strengthen urban resilience. In this paper, planning and redesigning of the existing built environment is proposed as a tool for anticipating a number of emergency situations that may arise in urban areas, including epidemic crises, whereby the case study presented concerns on Athens Metropolitan Area (AMA), in Greece. In this context, a number of pilot interventions have been proposed for the built environment in order to combat COVID-19 spreading, such as pop-up bike lanes, or pedestrian movement pathways, under the perspective of using less mass transportation means, supporting the "green transportation" of citizens, fostering well-being, securing undisrupted mobility of the supply chain, etc. All the above interventions could be seen as proposed good practices for cities' adaption to extreme conditions, tailor-made to their specific needs. However, the challenge that remains is how to easily apply measures that could be proven useful in any type of emergencies in ensuring sustainable urban resilience, e.g. use a pop-up bike lane initially designed to anticipate a lockdown, as an emergency lane for ambulances in case that a mass casualty earthquake strikes, among others.

Piraeus is the fourth largest municipality in Greece and a port city. Piraeus port is one of the biggest in the Mediterranean, serving thousands of passengers, who use the city as a transport corridor to reach Athens. On the other hand, the harbor gives a sense of liveliness in the city, further reinforced by the advantageous geographical position, important archaeological sites and a beautiful shoreline. New perspectives are also opening up for the city due to the development of a new cruise terminal. Among the crucial challenges faced by Piraeus city is the strong car-dependency. In order to cope with this issue and related impacts, but also to reinforce traditional economic activities related to the maritime economy, the municipality has decided to re-orient its planning efforts, visioning Piraeus as a sustainable coastal and maritime tourism destination. As part of this planning goal, the promotion of cycling has been decided, by launching a Bike Sharing System (BSS), being perc...

Piraeus is the fourth largest municipality in Greece and a port city. Piraeus port is one of the biggest in the Mediterranean, serving thousands of passengers, who use the city as a transport corridor to reach Athens. On the other hand, the harbor gives a sense of liveliness in the city, further reinforced by the advantageous geographical position, important archaeological sites and a beautiful shoreline. New perspectives are also opening up for the city due to the development of a new cruise terminal. Among the crucial challenges faced by Piraeus city is the strong car-dependency. In order to cope with this issue and related impacts, but also to reinforce traditional economic activities related to the maritime economy, the municipality has decided to re-orient its planning efforts, visioning Piraeus as a sustainable coastal and maritime tourism destination. As part of this planning goal, the promotion of cycling has been decided, by launching a Bike Sharing System (BSS), being perc...

Cycle-tourism seems to be an emerging touristic model in many countries, including Greece. Although the infrastructure is limited, entrepreneurship can support the development of such tourism sector, as cycle-tourists have specific needs to be met during an excursion. Thus, it would be helpful if stores that meet specific prerequisites could be certificated as cycle-friendly companies. In order for such certification to be developed, it is necessary for those parameters to be defined. This paper focuses on that topic and such criteria were identified through in-depth interviews with cycle-tourists and cycle-tour operators. Through this research, conclusions were derived about the criteria according to which cycle-tourists in Greece select stores and accommodation during an excursion. Those selection parameters were transcribed to indicators that will be used in order to develop the certification at the next phase of the research. Moreover, conclusions were compared with outcomes of ...

This paper aims to present and compare two methodologies in order to gather data from residents and visitors about their mobility behavior in the urban environment: crowdsourcing and visual research. These methodologies were used in two Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) in the medium-sized cities Kozani and Drama in Greece. Public input proves to be efficient in recognizing problems, proposing priorities and describing detailed proposals towards achieving desired aims. Results show that the issues that were recorded through the applications of visual research were also perceived by the inhabitants, through the ideas they proposed. It was also found that residents are focusing on concrete proposals, mostly realistic, sometimes presenting a specific spatial reference. On the other hand, public participation in the crowdsourcing platform was low. Combining the two methodologies proves to be effective towards raising public input validity.

Space Syntax focuses on the role of spatial networks in shaping patterns of social and economic transaction. Through a configurational analysis of street networks, the Space Syntax methodology investigates relationships between the spatial layout and a range of social, economic and environmental phenomena (Carpenter and Peponis 2009; Chiaradia, Hillier and Schwander 2009; Legeby 2009). Research using the Space Syntax approach has shown that pedestrian movement patterns in cities are powerfully shaped by the street network (Hillier 1996; Hillier et al. 1993). This approach utilises graph theory indices of accessibility, which measure spatial separation. The key focus is to describe the spatial impedance factors that separate locations, without considering the nature of the activities separated.

This chapter aims at pointing some remarks on the relevance of being aware of accessibility issues at the regional level. Although often under-valued, the regional meso-scale sets the framework between local (land use) and national (transport) level planning. For this reason, our goal is to present the importance of a regional viewpoint when planning for more sustainable territories. In this case, we opt for the simplicity of data inputs and analysis as a way to introduce and guide stakeholders towards more sophisticated and accurate analysis, should they have the capacity to allocate resources to accomplish them. Simple isochrones and contour measures evidence the potentiality of further cross-border cooperation for resident population on both sides of the border, which is in accordance with the literature on freight transport and spillover effects.

This chapter deals with cross-border cooperation. It points out the reasons that created the need for cooperation and describes its evolution through the last 30 years. This chapter highlights two kind of cross border cooperation through the analysis of case studies, those who refer to a regional level (Euroregion) and those who refer to a municipal level (Eurocities). The information collected in this chapter sets the background and institutional framework of the case study area of the remaining chapters of this publication, which is the Euroregion Galicia-North Portugal and more specifically the Eurocity of Tui-Valença...

Cycling is constantly gaining popularity in Europe both as a leisure activity and a viable transportation mode. Development of policies and infrastructure in Greece is following a rather inconsistent way, especially regarding the integration of cycling in existing open public spaces. This paper presents a research, conducted from 2008 to 2010 in Athens, exploring the development potential of a dynamic cycling scheme which would connect existing large green parks, university campuses and other related uses. The paper is structured in three parts. The first presents a comprehensive overview of cycling promotion policies and similar schemes in major European countries and cities, such as Denmark, United Kingdom, and Germany etc. The second part deals with particular infrastructure types and development attributes, and finally the third focuses on an Athens' case: the unification of Goudi Metropolitan Park with Police Academy Park, Polytechnic and University campuses. The results an...

This work deals with public participation in developing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) in Greece, provided that SUMP development procedures require a high level of public engagement in several stages. Its importance lies on the fact that although the European Commission has provided specific guidelines, imposing a distinct framework for public engagement in developing a SUMP, Greek practices and maturity in participatory planning in general and sustainable mobility planning in particular are lagging behind the common know-how and practice of other European member states. The study attempts to establish an integrated methodology that combines classical and ICT-enabled tools and approaches in order a higher public engagement level to be achieved. This methodology is implemented and tested in a specific case study, the city of Rethymno—Crete, Greece. More specifically, the proposed methodology incorporates traditional techniques for gathering commuting data from citizens and ...

Sustainable mobility is one of the most emerging challenges in the contemporary car-oriented city, where congestion and lawlessness grow, while funds continue to decline. Greece, so far, remains far behind the European and international innovative channels for transportation and mobility technology-assisted applications, having indeed a considerable increase in recent research and business projects. This paper aims at showcasing a collection of practices that focuses on enabling sustainable mobility policies and measures as well as hard infrastructure projects, both ICT and non ICT-enabled, in order to reach the smart city in mobility terms. The concept of a smart city does not always require the support of web technology tools, but rather integrates their use in a holistic approach to cope with the growing pressure of traffic situation and the existing travel behavior patterns. The study presents five (5) grouped sets of policy interventions and measures consisting of more than twe...

This paper is trying to identify all the components of an economy that affect and are affected by cycling. Their impact on the economy is shown through multiple cases. It also searches the investments on cycling projects as an attempt to document their economic effects and reveal their importance and key lessons learned through this procedure.

Bike sharing systems (BSS) are critical tools of current policies and practices to address challenges, as part of wider urban mobility management strategies. The key objective of these systems is to provide free or low cost access to bicycles for short distance trips in urban areas as an alternative option to private car use, therefore reducing air pollution, noise levels and traffic congestion. The report on cities' bike-sharing systems facts and figures is a foreseen output of CycleCities project. The facts & figures report on cities’ bike sharing systems aims to: a) present up-to-date facts and figures on bike sharing systems currently in use in European cities b) provide evidence on the effectiveness, impact and assessment of certain bike sharing system cases c) allow for valuable insights on the decisive, success factors for sustainable bike sharing systems based on city experiences and lessons learned. An online survey captured the views and opinions of key individuals inv...

Cycling tourism is an environmentally friendly way to explore a destination. Nowadays, it is becoming more and more popular worldwide, since it permits an in-depth communication both with nature and people. In this context, the aim of this paper is to explore, in detail, mainly the environmental motivators of cycling tourists, and their significance, in Greece, by using qualitative social research (in-depth interviews and focus groups) and participative analytical hierarchical process. The results show that regarding physical environment, the element which attracts cycle tourists the most is the variety of scenic views along their route. Existence of lakes, rivers and beaches were also valued. On the contrary, “Biodiversity” and “Untouched natural landscapes” were ranked low as a description of the quality of the natural environment. However, the rise of cycling tourism depends considerably on the appropriate infrastructure, namely roads with low slopes, appropriate quality of surfa...

In recent years, public participation tends to become a common practice in projects related to sustainable mobility planning for democratic reasons and due to the belief that public involvement would encourage innovative projects. In our study, a public participation plan was applied in the City of Piraeus in the framework of CYCLECITIES project. The principal aim was to propose a sustainable mobility plan by involving the residents and visitors of the city of Piraeus, not only by integrating their views and desires but also by urging them to have a concrete opinion towards real mobility policy dilemmas. Public participation was applied in three successive stages: (a) detect mobility critical issues (b) collect views and opinions on these issues and (c) collect opinions on proposed mobility planning scenarios. Results show that residents seem to be open to sustainable mobility changes, positive towards short-term and cost effective solutions and willing to participate in the planning.

Space Syntax focuses on the role of spatial networks in shaping patterns of social and economic transaction. Through a configurational analysis of street networks, the Space Syntax methodology investigates relationships between the spatial layout and a range of social, economic and environmental phenomena (Carpenter and Peponis 2009; Chiaradia, Hillier and Schwander 2009; Legeby 2009). Research using the Space Syntax approach has shown that pedestrian movement patterns in cities are powerfully shaped by the street  network (Hillier 1996; Hillier et al. 1993). This approach utilises graph theory indices of accessibility, which measure spatial separation. The key focus is to describe the spatial impedance factors that separate locations, without considering the nature of the activities separated.

Cycling is an old but fast growing component of European cities’ mobility planning schemes. Cycling has strategic importance for the mobility management schemes and the sustainable development of European cities. Bicycle infrastructure offers excellent value for money compared with other types of transport. In some cities, the traffic system already offers a large amount of bicycle infrastructures. This paper will be dealing with the categorization of cycling infrastructures across Europe and on its contribution to the mobility management of cities. This study has gathered data concerning the cycling infrastructure across Europe through an online questionnaire, common for all cities. The main benefits and challenges of infrastructures, their effectiveness in mobility management, and their safety performances are presented.

The EU funded CycleCities project concern cities that are willing to introduce sustainable urban transport policy strategies. European cities have an essential role to play in shaping and implementing policies for sustainable development. The environmental and economic challenges faced by urban mobility systems are viewed by the CycleCities partners, as opportunities for initiating policy changes.
Modern urban agglomerations face several problems that affect quality of life. Therefore in recent decades there has been an extensive effort to divert people from private cars initially to public transportation and more recently to cycling and walking. Cycling friendly mobility management schemes are at the centre of public debate in many countries. In order to achieve the desired modal split, policy makers have focused on the appropriate policies and measures that will promote cycling friendly management schemes.
In this effort both the public and private sector can have a significant contribution. Investments in cycling can have a significant impact, by creating favorable conditions and additional incentives towards the uptake of cycling by the population. This study includes the identification and assessment of environmental and economic gains and costs of cycling in a three –step procedure, which includes: identification of all the components of economy that are affected by cycling, quantification of indicators emerged from previous research stage in order to establish a data basis of unit prices and the assessment of gains and costs of projects, decisions and policies.
The paper will also present key lessons learned from the need of cities to attract private investors on cycling issues as captured through the survey. The results are twofold: they concern the national or local governments that start first and create the necessary framework for the private companies to be involved and the partnerships between public and private sector for cycling initiatives.