INTERREG III C. POLYMETREXplus RINA Inception Meeting BOLOGNA JUNE, 2006

Transcription

1 INTERREG III C POLYMETREXplus RINA Inception Meeting BOLOGNA JUNE, 2006

2 MAGDALINI K. SEGKOUNI ORGANISATION OF PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF THESSALONIKI (OR.TH.)

3 What a pretty blue planet!

4 Even submerged in darkness it is a beautiful sight!

5 CONTENTS 1)GREECE IN EUROPE POSITION GEOMORPHOLOGY THE 13 REGIONS OF GREECE THE REGION OF KENTRIKI (CENTRAL) MAKEDONIA 2)THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE THE PREFECTURE OF THESSALONIKI POSITION GEOMORPHOLOGY - ENVIRONMENT

6 CONTENTS 3)HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 4)TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS 5)STATISTICS 6)SOCIAL COHESION 7)THESSALONIKI-THE FUTURE ORGANIZATION OF THESSALONIKI (OR.TH.)

7 GREECE IN EUROPE (TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS)

8 POSITION OF GREECE IN THE SE EUROPE

9 THE REGION OF CENRAL MACEDONIA (KENTRIKI MAKEDONIA)

10 ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION Greece is divided into 52 Prefectures, which constitute the thirteen- (13) regions of our country. The population of Greece is people (N.S.S.G. 2001). The Region of Central Macedonia (EUROSTAT NUTS CODES: GR 12, NAME: KENTRIKI MAKEDONIA), has inhabitants (N.S.S.G. 1991). The Region of Central Macedonia, comprise the nomi (or prefectures) of Thessaloniki, Imathia, Kilkis, Pella, Pieria, Serres and Chalkidiki.

11 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE POSITION Greece is a country at the south east of the European continent. It is the southeast part of the Balkan area and its main body constitutes an important peninsula into the Mediterranean Sea. FYROM and Bulgaria bound the Region of Central Macedonia to the north, the region of Western Macedonia to the West, the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace to the east and the Aegean to the south. In demographic, economic and cultural terms it is Greece s second most important center after Attica. the country.

12 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE POSITION The regional capital is Thessaloniki, Greece s second largest city. The region is low-lying, and the Macedonian plain is one of the largest in Greece and exceptionally fertile. Thessaloniki is the second largest city of Greece and is the capital of the Region of Central Macedonia. It is sited at the north part of Greece, approximately at the same distance from the eastern and western borders of

13 THE PREFECTURE OF THESSALONIKI

14 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE

15 GEOMORPHOLOGY-ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT

16 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE GEOMORPHOLOGY-ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT The region of Central Macedonia is low-lying, and the Macedonian plain is one of the largest in Greece and exceptionally fertile. The combination of green plains, wooded mountains, clear rivers, extensive coastline and archaeological and historic monuments lend a variety to the landscape. The region has a satisfactory communications network, and has extensive road and rail links with the rest of Greece and Europe. Thessaloniki also has Greece s second largest international airport and the country s second port.

17 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE GEOMORPHOLOGY-ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT In and around the Thessaloniki conurbation there is a concentration of population and economic activities, particularly in the fields of manufacturing, commerce and culture. In the western parts of Central Macedonia agricultural production predominates, and manufacturing activities are closely linked to agriculture.

18 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE GEOMORPHOLOGY-ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT Tourist development is centered largely on Chalkidiki, whose natural beauty has made it the region s summer resort. However, the environment has suffered because of the unchecked tourist development. Land prices and the cost of living have both increased. Central and northeastern Chalkidiki is an area of intensive quarrying activity. However, there is little development potential in this sector.

19 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE GEOMORPHOLOGY-ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT The environment of Central Macedonia is one of many contrasts. Within the same region the environmentally polluted area of Thessaloniki and the Gulf of Thermaikos, coexist with the scenic beauty of Chalkidiki and Mound Athos, the waterfalls at Edessa and Naousa and three internationally significant wetland areas. The city of Thessaloniki and the area around it are beset with severe pollution problems. The death of the Gulf of Thermaikos, the atmospheric pollution,

20 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE GEOMORPHOLOGY-ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT the major problem of urban and industrial waste and noise pollution are the most obvious signs of damage to the region s environment. The mouths of the Axios, the Aliakmonas and the Loudias rivers, together with the Volvi, Koronia and Kerkini lakes, make up northern Greece s chain of ecologically important biotopes, protected under the Ramsar Convention.

21 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Central Macedonia is the land of Philip and Alexander the Great, with great historical and cultural richness. It is home to the self govern monastic republic of Athos (or the Holy Mountain), with its inestimable orthodox heritage. Its geographical and strategic position has made it a crossroad for trade with the Balkan countries and Eastern Europe. Thessaloniki is the capital of Macedonia and second largest city of Greece. It was first established in 316 BC by Kassandros and named after his wife, Thessaloniki, sister of Alexander the Great.

22 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND It is here that Paul, the Apostle of Nations, first brought the message of Christianity (50 AD) and that Demetrius, a Roman Officer died in martyrdom, thus becoming forever the holy patron of the city (303 AD). Thessaloniki becomes the second important city of the Byzantine Empire, next to Konstantinople, ornamented with numerous majesticand glamorous architectural works that display all forms of Byzantine art. After this illustrious era, the enemies take over. But each time, after every catastrophe, Thessaloniki reexalts in splendour, dressed in eternal garment of ancient and Byzantine glory.

23 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Today, Thessaloniki with its University and the International Trade Fair a crossroad for peoples friendship and collaboration is a lively modern city bustling with life and movement.

24 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS

25 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS International Airport linked to many important cities in Europe, to Athens and to many other cities of Greece. Rail services and links with Athens, Cities of Macedonia and Thrace, Central and Western Europe (through FYROM), Eastern Europe (through Bulgaria), Near East (through Turkey). Coach services by KTEL to all the big cities of Greece Sea connections with the islands Lemnos, Lesvos, Chios (all year around) and summer connections with Sporades, Dodecanese, Cyclades. No subway yet

26 Thessaloniki as a node of the transport network The problems of the incoherent connection of the metropolitan areas as well as the resulting insufficient regional development of Greece were points of interest for governments and policy makers for decades. Many major transport infrastructure inefficiencies and dysfunctions of Greece dealt for decades basically with the lacking of a fully explored and systematically applied multimodal transport syetem. Of course, urban traffic congestion as a part of a larger transportation problem in cities is regarded as a major issue in European metropolitan areas. It appears as a basic urban trip-making inefficiency, difficulties in pedestrian mobility, environmental degradation, traffic accidents, more fuel expenditures, time delays, lacking of valuable parking spaces and poor quality of service offered by the public transport systems.

27 Thessaloniki as a node of the transport network Egnatia Motorway along with the Patras-Athens- Thessaloniki-Evzoni expressway serves to be the largest and most important public infrastructure projects for the regional development of Greece. The port of Thessaloniki is a basic node of the transportation system of the area. These systems will automatically form a combined transport system to enhance Thessaloniki s position in the SE mediterranean basin. Investments such as the above are designed to improve the infrastructure of transport and transport access both for the Greek part of the corridor as well as for improving the intermodality of the basic terminal nodes, i.e. Thessaloniki, Kozani, Kavala and Alexandroupolis. Other types of investments such as projects in port, airport and railway infrastructure (both in capacity and equipment) are equally important for the terminal nodes.

28 THESSALONIKI IN EUROPE TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS

29 STATISTICS (POPULATION) The population of Greece is people The region of Central Macedonia has inhabitants The Perfecture of Thessaloniki has inhabitants The Metropolitan area of Thessaloniki has inhabitants The population of Central Macedonia grew by 23% between 1951 and 1971 due to internal migration Recently a great number of emigrants are coming to this area from the countries of the FSU, from Albania, from the CEEC but also from the Pakistan, Turkey etc.

30 SOCIAL COHESION The city of Thessaloniki, with a history spanning more than twenty-three centuries of continuous progress and evolution, is the model of a multicultural and all-embracing urban entity, which has survived and developed across the centuries thanks to the ability of its population to transform, to absorb and to exploit each successive set of conditions: social cohesion, economy, culture, security, etc. As time marched on, Thessaloniki transformed itself from the capital city of the ancient Macedonians into a Roman stronghold, and later, in the glory days of Byzantium, into that Empire s second greatest city (after Constantinople) in power, size and strength.

31 SOCIAL COHESION Its geopolitical location at the head of the Thermaikos Gulf, a position that has enabled its port to develop in safety and security, the ease of overland transportation that has facilitated communications with north and south, with east and west, and the necessary protection and guarded approaches afforded by the surrounding mountain massifs and the city s defensive walls, all helped Thessaloniki grow and develop across the ages. Culture, letters, the arts and the sciences flourished alongside trade and commerce, the economy, government and services. Down all these ages the city has always been open to social change, clash and conflict, as well as to cooperation, amalgamation and

32 SOCIAL COHESION transformation, with periods of tension followed by periods of tranquillity and intense creativity. The manifold opportunities for work and prosperity enjoyed by all its citizens encouraged what proved in the main to be smooth and steady progress and development throughout the region. Large-scale works, public and private, religious and cultural, ornamented the city, providing work for thousands of labourers and raising the quality of life of the entire population. These, together with the various urban planning projects that were carried out in the city, were also admired and imitated and also served as planning models for many other towns as well.

33 SOCIAL COHESION The years of Turkish occupation that followed the collapse of the Byzantine Empire were one of the darkest periods in Thessaloniki s history. The first third of the 19 th century was a time of tremendous political and organisational decline throughout the Ottoman Empire, and also a period of intense internal anarchy, which coincided with the national liberation movements in the Balkans and of course affected the cities in those regions. Fires, epidemics, economic recession, insecurity, abandonment and a declining population plagued the city, while at the same time powerful pressures and persecutions were inflicted on its Greek inhabitants in order to dissuade them from joining their insurgent brothers in the southern

34 SOCIAL COHESION provinces. The city, closely confined within its walls, maintained its traditional structure, organised by neighbourhoods and quarters corresponding to the ethno-religious origins of its inhabitants. A new period of modernisation and new urban organisation dawned for Thessaloniki in The Egnatia Street was opened and widened to 8 metres, rail connections with Skopje and Mitrovica were improved and the city acquired a broader network of transport and communications with its hinterland and with the seaways. The levelling of a large section of the defensive walls and the construction of the quay, which were the chief urban development interventions of this period, when the

35 SOCIAL COHESION age of Turkish rule was drawing to a close, changed the face of the city, making it possible to connect the port and the railway stations on the western side of the city and, on the east, creating room for the city to expand. This transformation was driven by the changing circumstances in the growth of trade in the Mediterranean, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal, and marked a new period for the city that is defined by a renewal of its international and local role. At the same time, a partial restructuring of the historic city centre now became possible, with a concomitant improvement in its general conditions of sanitation and health. New businesses, hotels and recreational facilities began to flood into the area.

36 SOCIAL COHESION The city plan for 1889 shows for the first time the twin expansions that the city had undergone, which covered an area of 90 hectares to the east and 60 hectares to the west. Wholly new land uses were initiated, encouraged by the availability of land, new forms of spatial organisation emerged and new forms of land occupation developed. The traditional separation by religion or ethnic origin (which continued to characterise the city centre) held no sway in the new territories. Their residents came from all the different communities in the city, and lived side by side without let or hindrance. In these new suburbs new industries developed, providing much employment, and many hospitals and schools,

37 SOCIAL COHESION public and private, sprang up. In 1890, a fire destroyed the historic centre of the city (from Egnatia Street to the quay and around the Cathedral and the church of St Sophia). The efforts that were made to rebuild this area had a significant impact on the face of the city. An almost regular grid pattern was laid out, and for the first time broad streets were built. The rapid growth of the urban population resulted in denser construction within the walls and the development of new housing in the newly laid out districts. By the end of the 19 th century Thessaloniki began to develop housing conditions similar to those experienced in other Western cities in much earlier

38 SOCIAL COHESION periods. Population growth, an aging housing stock (which was already in poor condition), natural catastrophes, a fluctuating economy and the lack of any organised housing policy dramatically aggravated the housing problem and the living and sanitary conditions within the city. At the turn of the 20 th century, Thessaloniki presented a dual face, with Europeanised quarters in some parts of the town and refugee camps creating distressed areas in and around the city core. The different communities living in this multicultural city, however, were engaged in an intense rivalry of reconstruction, which is reflected in the architecture of the city and its particular diversity of character.

39 SOCIAL COHESION Rampant speculation raged in the south-eastern sector, and the authorities expanded the metropolitan area to include huge tracts of land that in the end were not built up until after World War I. If the planning zones established at that time (1906 and 1911) had provided for public utilities and set land aside for future needs, one might have been able to speak of extraordinary foresight on the part of the city fathers, and many of the city s present and overwhelming problems would have been resolved. Unfortunately, it appears that city hall was only interested in the higher land values that follow zoning, and the resulting increase in the wealth of the great landowners and therefore of the revenues

40 SOCIAL COHESION flowing into the city s coffers. In this same period, the economic and urban development of the city was marked by the building of two new railway lines (to Monastiri and to Constantinople via Dedeagach), the expansion of the port, the widening of the waterfront avenue and the rebuilding (by civil engineer Eli Modiano) of the impressive Customs House. In 1912, the year of its liberation, Thessaloniki was the most modern city in the Ottoman Empire. Community life, which until then had been organised around neighbourhood focal points (church, school, public institutions, etc.), slowly began to revolve around collective spaces for uses including recreation, education and health. New building

41 SOCIAL COHESION regulations imposed the construction of residential accommodation above the street level shops, thus introducing the co-existence of two traditionally incompatible functions. Alongside the traditional, low, inward-oriented wooden houses, there developed new types of housing, eclectic in form and with lofty masonry silhouettes turned towards the street. The old neighbourhoods remained labyrinthine and disorganised, while the new districts both in the centre and in the suburbs acquired a regular street grid that took into account the coming sovereignty of wheeled traffic. The rapidly growing population and the build-up of needs led to a wholly uncontrolled mix

42 SOCIAL COHESION of land uses: factories were built anywhere, wherever land was available, residential and commercial uses were intermingled, and the old neighbourhoods in the historic centre and the Upper Town were flooded with poor immigrants. After the liberation of the city, Thessaloniki had a population mix that was one third Muslim (those who did not leave the city), one third Jewish and one third Christian, all of whom had learned to live cheek by jowl with one another. The Great Fire of 1917, which in the space of 32 hours consumed 120 hectares of the most important part of the city centre, basically erased the Oriental aspect of the city s character and destroyed the traditional structure that despite all efforts at

43 SOCIAL COHESION modernisation had continued to subsist. The new plan created for the city by the International Planning Commission under French architect Ernest Hébrard is an interesting record of the prevailing planning perceptions of the period in particular local and historic manifestations. It introduced into Thessaloniki a classic urban layout (main arteries, diagonal thoroughfares, monuments and focal points, etc.), a graduated system of roads and streets, the concentration of public services and the creation of a civic centre. It was at this time, too, that a condominium system of housing first appeared, thus integrating residential construction into the market economy.

44 SOCIAL COHESION With Greece s entry into the war in 1940, all architectural and planning activity came to a halt. It was not until the end of the decade that new changes could be discerned in the urban environment. However, the mass extermination in the German death camps of the city s Jewish population (49,000 souls), a community that for centuries had played a part in shaping the face of the city, and the gradual withdrawal of the remaining Ottoman population were radically to change the composition of the city, which was already struggling to absorb the flood of refugees from the Asia Minor catastrophe (1922). The increase in the city s population between 1951 (331,000) and 1961 (378,000) was barely 25%, and

45 SOCIAL COHESION entirely comparable to the average for Greek cities at the time. Over the next decade (1961 / 378, / 57,000), however, Thessaloniki s population grew by %, a rate comparable only to Athens. This internal migration, which depopulated the countryside, accelerated the spatial expansion of the city and made any form of planning wholly impossible. Unregulated construction thus made its appearence, especially in the north-western districts nearest the city s industrial area. In an attempt to solve the housing problem, decrees were issued in 1956 and 1960 that raised the co-efficient of exploitation of ground plots, permitting an exceptionally high building construction utilisation of

46 SOCIAL COHESION land in the city. The frenetic building that went on throughout the city in the 1960s imposed a single type of structure, the apartment block, giving the modern city a wholly new and uniformly anonymous appearance. Left to the private economy, and in the absence of any conservation policy prior to 1980, most of the eclectic buildings in both the centre and other areas were replaced by post-war constructions. Today, the city has a population of more than a million, with a composition that is constantly changing. Over the last decade immigration from countries near and far has increased sharply. Thessaloniki, easily accessible especially from countries lying to the north, has received (and

47 SOCIAL COHESION continues to receive, day in day out) a large of number of immigrants (legal and illegal) who create their own areas within the body of the city, driving out the initial inhabitants of the more underprivileged districts and creating new conditions of urban life and co-existence. Migration within the city itself, further driven by the increased demand for low standard housing that follows an influx of foreigners into the city, takes place for many reasons, including a) improving the quality of life, b) moving nearer to places of employment, c) a search for cheaper housing, d) changes in family size, e) better services (schools, better access to public transport, etc.) and

48 SOCIAL COHESION f) integration into a social community. New residential areas are growing up on the outskirts of the city, both in the east (Panorama, Pylaia, Kalamaria, Thermi, etc.) and in the west (Evosmos, Polichni, Efkarpia, etc.). Plans for the construction of a metropolitan railway, an underwater tunnel, a new outer ring road and new interchanges, the improvement and expansion of the airport, the port and the railway station, the protection of the environment and the programmed organisation of such major international events as EXPO 2008, in conjunction with a newly developed social policy, are expected to give the city the security it needs to face the future with optimism.

49 THESSALONIKI: THE FUTURE The Organisation for the Master Plan Implementation and Environmental Protection of Thessaloniki, or simply the Organisation of Thessaloniki (OR.TH.), is a legal person governed by public law. It belongs to the Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works (henceforth simply referred to as the Ministry) and is overseen by the relevant Minister. OR.TH. was founded in 1985.It commenced operation in 1986 Since 1988, successive efforts have been made and plans submitted to legally establish OR.TH. as an organisation, but the approval procedure has yet to be finalised. Hence OR.TH. has been functioning with personnel assigned from other departments formerly belonging to the Ministry and today belonging to both the Ministry and the Region of Central Macedonia (RCM).

50 THESSALONIKI: THE FUTURE Today, a great effort is being made to upgrade OR.TH., an effort which in our opinion all the city's bodies are in agreement with. OR.TH., as the body responsible for the Master and Strategic Plan in its area of responsibility, which includes Environmental Protection, currently has the following action plan in progress, while also striving to: a. Promote a series of proposals at the executive planning level by highlighting the city's metropolitan role, and b. Deal with a number of major problems in Thessaloniki which were detected many decades ago and whose confrontation and the effort to find solutions fall, in any case, within the metropolitan sphere.

51 THESSALONIKI: THE FUTURE OR.TH. is also responsible for : The Strategic Plan of Thessaloniki Updating the Master Plan of Thessaloniki Promotion of Presidential Decree on the Determination of a (Land Use) Urban Control Zone in the outskirts of Thessaloniki Promotion and approval of General Land Use Plans (GLUPs) in Greater Thessaloniki Completion and promotion of the proposals stemming from the "General Traffic Study of Thessaloniki" assigned to engineering firms (Law 716/77) and overseen by OR.TH. Completion of study on the city's army camps in association with the Ministry of Defence etc.

52 STRATEGIC PLAN

53 STRATEGIC PLAN

54 MASTER PLAN

55 MASTER PLAN

56 MASTER PLAN

57