The political objective calling for environmentally sustainable development has provided the canvas for lively dialogue amongst scientists and analysts. Be that as it may, what have been found wanting are operational conditions for the achievement of environmental sustainability within specific anthropogenic systems, with cities being cited as a prime example of such systems. Indeed, from a historical perspective, cities have always been based on the concentration of humans and man‐made elements, resulting in respective confinement of natural assets. As cities possess particular properties for their environmental basis, the general conditions governing sustainability require suitable modifications when applied to cities. In this context, the present paper examines the conditions for environmentally sustainable development in urban systems. The specific natural and socioeconomic characteristics of urban systems are systematically taken into account for defining environmentally sustainable development in cities. The paper proposes an operational framework for evaluating urban systems for their environmental performance. Urban systems, presenting specific characteristics necessary for creating welfare with high density, ask for particular conditions for their environmentally sustainable development. These conditions differ substantially from those defining sustainability in broader geographical systems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The objective of this paper is to analyse the changes that occurred in the regional disparities and sectoral specialisation of the Greek regions due to the economic crisis. The research problem is to identify the effect that the crisis had on the developmental perspectives of the regions and on regional policy priorities. In this framework, we explore the regional disparities, along with the allocation and specialisation of economic sectors in two separate time periods: the pre-crisis period (2000–2007) and the crisis period (2008–2014). The variable used is regional employment in the branches of economic activity. The methods used are Coefficient of Variation, Location Quotients and Shift-Share Analysis. According to the results, we classify the spatial units into categories and we propose means of regional policy. The results show that the disparities increased during the first period of the crisis and declined in the next, without, however, reaching the levels of 2000. In the first period the dynamic economic sectors are concentrated mainly in the metropolitan region of Attica and in the island region of South Aegean, while local advantages are shown in several regions except Attica. During the period of crisis, Attica and South Aegean lost their sectoral dynamism, while a few regions resisted. Regarding the local share effects, the more urbanised regions show negative local shares. The rest of the regions exhibit local advantages. Thus, according to these results, a concluding remark is that the more traditional activities seem to be more resilient, unlike the modern activities, which seem more sensitive to the crisis and are located mainly in the large cities and the most urbanised regions of the country. Regarding the proposed regional policy means, infrastructure improvement is indicated for most of the urbanised regions in order to improve their developmental environment. For the other regions, a more balanced sectoral structure must be promoted. Of course, in order to propose more targeted policy measures, it is important that regional development features (according to the classification of the regions and the proposed policy measures) be adapted to smaller areas and to a greater number of narrower economic sectors, rather than simply applying them at the regional level. This is also true of the effect that some other factors such as human capital and innovative capacity have on regional resilience. Future research will focus on this.

Twenty years after the beginning of the implementation of EU Cohesion Policy in Greece in the current programming period, 2007–13, for the first time Greek regions have been excluded from Objective 1 ‘Convergence’, a situation that it seems will continue in the next period. As it appears, Cohesion Policy has helped the country and its regions to converge to the European average. However, at an intra-national level, it seems that this is not the case, since internal inter-regional disparities appear to have increased in recent years. To these developments should be added the impact of the economic crisis, which according to early indications has negative repercussions for almost all Greek regions, with varying levels of intensity. These findings, combined with the constantly deteriorating economic situation at national and regional level, sustain the argument that Cohesion Policy will continue to be one of the most important policies of the EU and should constitute a powerful tool against the crisis and its regional dimensions.

This study investigates the impact of two consecutive economic shocks—the 2009–2018 economic crisis and the 2019–2022 COVID-19 pandemic—on the resilience and recovery of Greece’s 13 NUTS II-level Administrative Regions. Using secondary data on employment per sector from the Greek Statistical Authority and Eurostat, resilience is assessed through resistance and recovery indices, complemented by shift-share analysis to identify sectoral and local influences on regional performance. Regions with robust agricultural bases displayed consistent resistance and recovery, while tourism-dependent regions transitioned from high to low resistance during the pandemic. Urban centres like Attiki showed enhanced resilience due to concentrated economic activity and local advantages, forming a high-resistance, fast-recovery cluster. Consequently, regions with local advantages are more resilient in times of crisis. Sectors developing locally due to these advantages strengthen economic resilience, whereas dynamic sectors at the national level relying on external environments are more vulnerable, recovering more slowly and impacting host regions. Strong concentration economies alongside local advantages further bolster resilience. Strengthening local economic structures and diversifying activities are crucial for mitigating disparities. This study underscores the importance of tailored sustainable policies to enhance resilience and ensure long-term regional sustainability.

The local tourism production system has been used in the literature as a territorial model to analyse a tourism destination and examine the interrelationships among its stakeholders. In this paper, we elaborate on this model by additionally analysing the economic linkages of the local tourism production system activities with local sectors, and seek to examine whether Messinia, a region in south-western Greece, fulfils the conditions for the operation of a local tourism production system. For this purpose, in conjunction with secondary data, 276 questionnaires were used from a business survey conducted via personal interviews at enterprises that are directly or indirectly affected by tourism. The results of the analysis show that our study area fulfils all four criteria set for the operation of such a system, though it does display strengths (high concentration of small- and medium-sized enterprises, strong economic linkages) and weaknesses (marginal specialisation, unsteady social ties). Meanwhile, the operation of a large tourism enterprise in the region does not act competitively but rather as a propulsive activity to the local tourism production system, thus supporting the notion that a large enterprise can boost a local production system and extending it within the tourism context. The paper concludes that investigating the economic linkages of the local tourism production system activities allows for a more accurate assessment of its operation, which in our case could be further enhanced by establishing a focal actor in a tourism network or cluster.