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Prof. Athena Yiannakou
Proffesor

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0 Urban Regeneration
0 Urban and regional planning
0 land policy and planning
0 European spatial planning systems
0 cities and crises

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Spatial planning and transport
Urban Regeneration
land policy and planning
spatial planning, sustainable development and climate change

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Journal article
Published: 16 April 2021 in Urban Science
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contribution of urban morphology to the formation of microclimatic conditions prevailing within urban outdoor spaces. We studied the compact form of a city and examined, at a detailed, street plan level, elements related to air temperature, urban ventilation, and the individual’s thermal comfort. All elements examined are directly affected by both the urban form and the availability of open and green spaces. The field study took place in a typical compact urban fabric of an old city center, the city center of Thessaloniki, where we investigated the relationship between urban morphology and microclimate. Urban morphology was gauged by examining the detailed street plan, along with the local building patterns. We used a simulation method based on the ENVI-met© software. The findings of the field study highlight the fact that the street layout, the urban canyon, and the open and green spaces in a compact urban form contribute decisively both to the creation of the microclimatic conditions and to the influence of the bioclimatic parameters.

ACS Style

Georgios-Rafail Kouklis; Athena Yiannakou. The Contribution of Urban Morphology to the Formation of the Microclimate in Compact Urban Cores: A Study in the City Center of Thessaloniki. Urban Science 2021, 5, 37 .

AMA Style

Georgios-Rafail Kouklis, Athena Yiannakou. The Contribution of Urban Morphology to the Formation of the Microclimate in Compact Urban Cores: A Study in the City Center of Thessaloniki. Urban Science. 2021; 5 (2):37.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Georgios-Rafail Kouklis; Athena Yiannakou. 2021. "The Contribution of Urban Morphology to the Formation of the Microclimate in Compact Urban Cores: A Study in the City Center of Thessaloniki." Urban Science 5, no. 2: 37.

Journal article
Published: 08 October 2020 in Sustainability
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Rapid expansion of settlements and related infrastructures is a global trend that comes with severe environmental, economic, and social costs. Steering urbanization toward well-balanced compactness is thus acknowledged as an important strategic orientation in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG-11) via the SDG-indicator “Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate.” The EU’s simultaneous commitment to being “a frontrunner in implementing […] the SDGs” and to striving for “no net land take until 2050” calls for relating the concepts of land consumption and land take to each other. Drawing on an EU-centred questionnaire study, a focus group and a literature review, we scrutinize definitions of land consumption and land take, seeking to show how they are interrelated, and questioning the comparability of respective indicators. We argue that conceptual clarifications and a bridging of the two notions are much needed, and that the precision required for definitions and applications is context-dependent. While approximate understandings may suffice for general communication and dissemination objectives, accurate and consistent interpretations of the discussed concepts seem indispensable for monitoring and reporting purposes. We propose ways of addressing existing ambiguities and suggest prioritizing the term land take in the EU context. Thereby, we aim to enhance conceptual clarity around land consumption and land take—a precondition for solidly informing respective policies and decisions.

ACS Style

Elisabeth Marquard; Stephan Bartke; Judith Gifreu I Font; Alois Humer; Arend Jonkman; Evelin Jürgenson; Naja Marot; Lien Poelmans; Blaž Repe; Robert Rybski; Christoph Schröter-Schlaack; Jaroslava Sobocká; Michael Tophøj Sørensen; Eliška Vejchodská; Athena Yiannakou; Jana Bovet. Land Consumption and Land Take: Enhancing Conceptual Clarity for Evaluating Spatial Governance in the EU Context. Sustainability 2020, 12, 8269 .

AMA Style

Elisabeth Marquard, Stephan Bartke, Judith Gifreu I Font, Alois Humer, Arend Jonkman, Evelin Jürgenson, Naja Marot, Lien Poelmans, Blaž Repe, Robert Rybski, Christoph Schröter-Schlaack, Jaroslava Sobocká, Michael Tophøj Sørensen, Eliška Vejchodská, Athena Yiannakou, Jana Bovet. Land Consumption and Land Take: Enhancing Conceptual Clarity for Evaluating Spatial Governance in the EU Context. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (19):8269.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elisabeth Marquard; Stephan Bartke; Judith Gifreu I Font; Alois Humer; Arend Jonkman; Evelin Jürgenson; Naja Marot; Lien Poelmans; Blaž Repe; Robert Rybski; Christoph Schröter-Schlaack; Jaroslava Sobocká; Michael Tophøj Sørensen; Eliška Vejchodská; Athena Yiannakou; Jana Bovet. 2020. "Land Consumption and Land Take: Enhancing Conceptual Clarity for Evaluating Spatial Governance in the EU Context." Sustainability 12, no. 19: 8269.

Journal article
Published: 09 July 2020 in Sustainability
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As climate change and other interdependent challenges are expected to become increasingly acute and unpredictable, so the need for policies and measures to reduce risks and uncertainties in order to adapt to these changes becomes more imperative. Cities can influence their adaptation, resilience, and eventually their sustainability through spatial planning with the use of more ecosystem-based planning tools, such as Green Infrastructure (GI). The present paper is an attempt to assess whether and how city strategies address the objective of an adaptation which interconnects the criteria of vulnerability, adaptability, and resilience through spatial planning. For this purpose, the paper examines the Resilience Strategies of seven European cities of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative (100RC). Based on a thematic analysis, the paper investigates whether these strategies incorporate a spatial planning approach which contributes to adaptation to climate change, focusing on GI as a spatial planning tool. The paper argues that there is room for improvement in all the examined strategies, as none of them fully incorporate the concept of GI, and, furthermore, that some critical planning principles which contribute to adaptation are missing.

ACS Style

Konstantina-Dimitra Salata; Athena Yiannakou. The Quest for Adaptation through Spatial Planning and Ecosystem-Based Tools in Resilience Strategies. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5548 .

AMA Style

Konstantina-Dimitra Salata, Athena Yiannakou. The Quest for Adaptation through Spatial Planning and Ecosystem-Based Tools in Resilience Strategies. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (14):5548.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Konstantina-Dimitra Salata; Athena Yiannakou. 2020. "The Quest for Adaptation through Spatial Planning and Ecosystem-Based Tools in Resilience Strategies." Sustainability 12, no. 14: 5548.

Research article
Published: 01 March 2020 in Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit
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Urban regeneration has been at the forefront of urban planning and development in European cities for many decades and is strongly connected to property-led development, with the involvement of various stakeholders. In Greece, urban regeneration, as a public policy response to large-scale abandonment and dereliction of urban land, has not been successful so far. The Greek planning system and its provisions for renewal of degraded urban areas have for long been regarded as an obstacle to the implementation of urban regeneration projects. The reform of the planning system in the 2010s introduced some critical changes, with an emphasis on larger-scale development, but with no particular focus on urban regeneration. Using two case studies of regeneration projects in the city of Thessaloniki, this paper attempts to provide an insight into the role of the various stakeholders in such projects. It is argued that in these projects, each stakeholder, irrespective of its character, acts as distinct interest group which develops only binary relations with other stakeholders. Thus, the regeneration project becomes a platform upon which each stakeholder aims to secure its power, instead of a coordinated multi-stakeholder process with a framework for sharing the costs and benefits of its implementation.

ACS Style

Athena Yiannakou. Urban regeneration as a perpetual planning process: Understanding the role of stakeholders in property-led regeneration projects in Greek cities. Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit 2020, 35, 83 -104.

AMA Style

Athena Yiannakou. Urban regeneration as a perpetual planning process: Understanding the role of stakeholders in property-led regeneration projects in Greek cities. Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit. 2020; 35 (2):83-104.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Athena Yiannakou. 2020. "Urban regeneration as a perpetual planning process: Understanding the role of stakeholders in property-led regeneration projects in Greek cities." Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit 35, no. 2: 83-104.

Articles
Published: 10 February 2020 in European Planning Studies
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Developed essentially in the context of American cities, the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) model has also occupied the literature regarding European cities, especially those with long developed urban rail systems. This paper provides a critical overview of the TOD model regarding three main topics: key features and typologies; benefits, drawbacks and implementation challenges; and readiness criteria. It then proceeds to an investigation of the potential for implementing the TOD model in the context of Southern European cities, traditionally considered to fall into typical compact forms of development, many of which also lack integrated urban and transport planning. Based on the case of Thessaloniki, Greece, which introduces urban rail by constructing a metro system, a typology is proposed, adapted to the case of a dense and mixed-use city, and two pilot TOD plans are presented. The paper highlights that an integrated urban and transport planning based on a modification of the TOD model could be implemented in Southern European cities, taking advantage of their compact and mixed-use features but also constraining the relatively recent phenomenon of suburban dispersion. Nevertheless, overcoming the multiple institutional and financing barriers is necessary to guarantee a successful transfer and adaptation of the TOD model.

ACS Style

Apostolos Papagiannakis; Athina Vitopoulou; Athena Yiannakou. Transit-oriented development in the southern European city of Thessaloniki introducing urban railway: typology and implementation issues. European Planning Studies 2020, 29, 117 -141.

AMA Style

Apostolos Papagiannakis, Athina Vitopoulou, Athena Yiannakou. Transit-oriented development in the southern European city of Thessaloniki introducing urban railway: typology and implementation issues. European Planning Studies. 2020; 29 (1):117-141.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Apostolos Papagiannakis; Athina Vitopoulou; Athena Yiannakou. 2020. "Transit-oriented development in the southern European city of Thessaloniki introducing urban railway: typology and implementation issues." European Planning Studies 29, no. 1: 117-141.

Journal article
Published: 10 December 2018 in European Urban and Regional Studies
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Land ownership determines fundamental interests, prescribing a framework of alliances and oppositions around its development and use. The public sector constitutes one of the main categories of large landowners, although this type of ownership takes more than one form, due to the wide variety of public sector bodies holding property. Public land management became one of the focuses of austerity policies in many European countries after the burst of economic crisis in 2008–2009, externally imposed in those countries that went through bailout programmes. In Greece, the history of land policy shows that a fundamental objective of state policy was the distribution and liquidation of public land, a policy that contributed to the formation of an extensive system of small land ownership. From 2010 onwards, a plethora of formal legislation sought to accelerate development procedures for the remaining large-scale public property, as a background resource to attract large-scale, so-called “strategic”, investments. This paper explores the critical characteristics and outcomes of the reforms to transform public land policy, identifying the interactions with urban planning, before and during the economic crisis. Taking a longer temporal view, the paper highlights the entrenched relationships existing between public land policy, urban planning and property development processes and their significance in the diachronic continuities often concealed in major policy reversals and reforms. It argues that ultimately there is a lack of a coherent and sustainable public property valorisation policy, being deprived of any institutional innovation for new forms of urban development, as well as of social acceptance.

ACS Style

Athina Vitopoulou; Athena Yiannakou. Public land policy and urban planning in Greece: Diachronic continuities and abrupt reversals in a context of crisis. European Urban and Regional Studies 2018, 27, 259 -275.

AMA Style

Athina Vitopoulou, Athena Yiannakou. Public land policy and urban planning in Greece: Diachronic continuities and abrupt reversals in a context of crisis. European Urban and Regional Studies. 2018; 27 (3):259-275.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Athina Vitopoulou; Athena Yiannakou. 2018. "Public land policy and urban planning in Greece: Diachronic continuities and abrupt reversals in a context of crisis." European Urban and Regional Studies 27, no. 3: 259-275.

Journal article
Published: 25 September 2017 in Sustainability
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The structure of a settlement network has been influenced historically by physical, geographical and socioeconomic factors. Theories of spatial development have focused on the interaction between urban areas and socioeconomic processes considering the natural surroundings as a steady parameter rather than a potentially varying element contributing to spatial development. Over the past 25 years in Greece, a number of socio-economic factors along with improvements in transport infrastructure led to crucial changes in the traditional settlement system. The development of new economic activities was often associated with the special characteristics of the natural landscape. In this way, natural landscape as a dynamic element interacts with the built environment and the economic activities of a place, leading to the formation of new clusters of relationships. Using the case study of the Region of Western Macedonia, a mountainous, border zone Greek region, and based on an interactive framework of analysis whereby human and natural systems are considered strongly interconnected, this paper examines the spatial interactions between the settlement network, as the basic representation of human activity, the natural landscape, as a crucial element of the natural system, and the dynamic zones of economic activities, as a parameter that encompasses crucial attributes of both human and natural systems. The paper proposes that the heterogeneity of these interactions and the way they affect the thresholds and resilience of a specific place are important for the understanding of spatial change and for an integrated spatial planning for sustainable development.

ACS Style

Athena Yiannakou; Dimosthenis Eppas; Dimitra Zeka. Spatial Interactions between the Settlement Network, Natural Landscape and Zones of Economic Activities: A Case Study in a Greek Region. Sustainability 2017, 9, 1715 .

AMA Style

Athena Yiannakou, Dimosthenis Eppas, Dimitra Zeka. Spatial Interactions between the Settlement Network, Natural Landscape and Zones of Economic Activities: A Case Study in a Greek Region. Sustainability. 2017; 9 (10):1715.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Athena Yiannakou; Dimosthenis Eppas; Dimitra Zeka. 2017. "Spatial Interactions between the Settlement Network, Natural Landscape and Zones of Economic Activities: A Case Study in a Greek Region." Sustainability 9, no. 10: 1715.

Original articles
Published: 03 July 2017 in disP - The Planning Review
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Strategic spatial planning, in its widely accepted theoretical conceptualisation, has become the terrain for making balanced decisions about the consolidation of both a city’s international competitiveness and its role in a wider international context. Thus, it has emphasized shared responsibilities between the public and the private sector in economies where the roles of the public and the private sphere are clearly complementary. In countries with weaker institutional settings such distinctions are purposely obscure, as both spheres are enmeshed in statist and rent-seeking structures. Based on an investigation of the strategic spatial plans prepared over the past 15 years for the city of Thessaloniki the present paper attempts to explain the specificities and failures of strategic spatial planning in the Greek institutional environment, within the context of four defining features of the Greek local state, namely: (i) the centralization of the Greek government; (ii) the funding arrangements of local government; (iii) the nature of the local institutional intermediaries and stakeholders; and (iv) a political economy which favours consumption over the production of internationally competitive goods and services – this production being enabled by the local state’s marshalling of location specific assets.

ACS Style

Antonis Kamaras; Athena Yiannakou. Interactions between Strategic Spatial Planning and Local State in Weak Institutional Settings. disP - The Planning Review 2017, 53, 71 -83.

AMA Style

Antonis Kamaras, Athena Yiannakou. Interactions between Strategic Spatial Planning and Local State in Weak Institutional Settings. disP - The Planning Review. 2017; 53 (3):71-83.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Antonis Kamaras; Athena Yiannakou. 2017. "Interactions between Strategic Spatial Planning and Local State in Weak Institutional Settings." disP - The Planning Review 53, no. 3: 71-83.

Journal article
Published: 03 April 2017 in disP - The Planning Review
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ACS Style

Athena Yiannakou. Athena Yiannakou — Challenges for Spatial Development and Planning in Europe. disP - The Planning Review 2017, 53, 92 -93.

AMA Style

Athena Yiannakou. Athena Yiannakou — Challenges for Spatial Development and Planning in Europe. disP - The Planning Review. 2017; 53 (2):92-93.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Athena Yiannakou. 2017. "Athena Yiannakou — Challenges for Spatial Development and Planning in Europe." disP - The Planning Review 53, no. 2: 92-93.

Journal article
Published: 15 February 2017 in Sustainability
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One of the problems urban areas are facing is the coupled effect of climate change and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This article attempts to demonstrate the potential of spatial planning to reduce the UHI effect and, hence, to contribute to climate change adaptation in compact urban areas. After a brief review of the relevant literature, the article focuses on one case study within the compact urban area of the city of Thessaloniki. The geographical, socio-economic and urban form data of the study area and its subsequent vulnerability to UHI were initially assessed. Based on these features, a local spatial planning strategy is proposed, and the study proceeds to a detailed amendment of the land use plan, within part of the vulnerable zone. This takes into account the existing urban form, the lack of resources and the availability of the spatial planning tools within the Greek spatial planning system. Τhe main purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that, even in urban areas where the potential for intervention seems to be marginal, because of their existing form, the complexities of the local planning system and resource limitations, improvements to the UHI effect and adaptation to climate change can be achieved by better land use planning and urban design.

ACS Style

Athena Yiannakou; Konstantina-Dimitra Salata. Adaptation to Climate Change through Spatial Planning in Compact Urban Areas: A Case Study in the City of Thessaloniki. Sustainability 2017, 9, 271 .

AMA Style

Athena Yiannakou, Konstantina-Dimitra Salata. Adaptation to Climate Change through Spatial Planning in Compact Urban Areas: A Case Study in the City of Thessaloniki. Sustainability. 2017; 9 (2):271.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Athena Yiannakou; Konstantina-Dimitra Salata. 2017. "Adaptation to Climate Change through Spatial Planning in Compact Urban Areas: A Case Study in the City of Thessaloniki." Sustainability 9, no. 2: 271.