Author(s)

V. Pappas

Abstract

Patras is the third urban complex in Greece and one of the oldest, having a continuous history of 4,000 years. The modern history of the city is characterized by a rapid and continuous development and transformation, concerning its structure, function and its physiognomy. Although Patras is the first city having an official Master Plan (since 1827), its historical route and evolution is far from rational and planned. The city seems to be unready to face these challenges and does not have the proper infrastructure and planning framework to be able and conscious to form its own development route. The strategic planning alternatives are missing or are absolutely insufficient and the planning process is limited to fragmentary studies, actions, activities and/or initiatives. This work presents and analyses Patras’ main characteristics, its evolution, the limitations and problems, in planning process, and forms and documents a proposal concerning a modern planning framework to secure the sustainable development of the whole region. Keywords: sustainable planning, Small size metropolitan areas, Patras, Greece. 1 Introduction While the international specialized bibliography uses the term \“metropolis” with big frequency, there is not an explicit and widely acceptable definition [1], but it is used with terms that belong in sphere of common perception and acceptance through the abundance of differentiated definitions. Usually the term is reported in the large modern urban complexes that present certain common characteristics from which can be reported, as the most important, the following: a) Their demographic size is reported in certain hundreds thousands residents, b) They have and determine a powerful region and allocate multifunctional character, c)

Keywords

sustainable planning, Small size metropolitan areas, Patras, Greece.