Strategic Spatial Planning for Green Infrastructure. The case of the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki

Intense and varying environmental challenges have become one of the most pressuring goals that contemporary cities struggle to meet. Climate change, excessive urbanization and fragmentation of space are just some of the issues that contemporary cities are called to respond to. Thus, finding an effective approach to improve the quality of urban areas has proved crucial to cities all around the world. Green Infrastructure (GI) practices emerge as a key measure for cities that seek to increase their resilience to climate change and provide a quality place for people. Through strategic spatial planning, GI can be considered as one of the most appropriate multi-faceted approaches to reciprocate to a constantly changing urban landscape. In the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki there has been no GI planning so far. However, existing and prospective green, open and natural areas can play a catalytic role in the development of a GI network. To address this gap, the paper presents the methodology used for the development of a strategic spatial planning approach for GI in the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki.