The main objective of the course is to comprehensively address topics and master the
techniques used in the preparation of spatial plans at Regional level, and the analysis stage in particular (the proposal phase is the subject of the course Spatial Planning 2). The course is shaped with regard to the institutional framework of real word questions of spatial planning in Greece, with references to and connections with relative theory and issues and the wider institutional framework. In more explicit spatial terms, and in EU terminology, the course deals with spatial planning on the NUTS-2 level (as, in the case Greece, Region of Thessaly).

The main goal of the course is to introduce the methodology, procedures and actual practice techniques used in the analytic phase of Spatial Planning at Regional level to the students.

The course has a strong workshop character. Students’ presence in the classroom and
participation in the procedures is mandatory. The course backbone is a main project being prepared step by step, during the whole semester, by small groups of students. The main project is the analysis phase of the plan for a specific region.

The course places special emphasis on the pivotal role of spatial plans at regional level in the spatial planning system as a whole, elaborating on its relations to both national and supra-national policies and plans and the more detailed spatial plans as in the case of strategic town planning on the municipal level (master or structural plans). Students are asked to recall knowledge and skills they acquired in previous courses raging from geography to town planning, to mapping tools and handling spatial information, to legal system basics.

The lectures have a subsidiary character and mainly address the following issues:

• The Greek spatial planning system and the role of spatial planning at Regional level.
• Urban network.
• Population and geographical characteristics.
• Administration.
• Land-use / land cover.
• Economic profile & productive activities.
• Natural and cultural environment – Climate change.
• Transport and Other Technical Infrastructure.

• • European Commission (1999) European Spatial Development Perspectives (ESDP), Brussels.
• • European Commission, (2000), The EU compendium of spatial planning systems and policies, Greece, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.
• • Hall P. 2002. Urban and Regional Planning. 4th Edition. Routledge. London and New York
• • Reimer M., Getimis, P., & Blotevogel H., (2014) Spatial Planning Systems and Practices in Europe. A Comparative Perspective on Continuity and Changes, (eds), Routledge, New York
• • OECD –Οrganization of Economic Co-operation and Development (2017) Land –use Planning Systems in the OECD –Country Fact Sheets, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264268579-en(Accessed: 02 March 2018)