Integrated coastal urban management

case study of Elefsina coastal area

Abstract

This article aims to make an effective connection between design and management of coastal urban
sites through a specific case study. The waterfront of Elefsina, which recently hosts heavy industrial
and maritime uses, is selected as case study. Today the coastal front of Eleusis suffers in terms of its
quality characteristics. In order to cope with this problem, this article focuses firstly on the issue and
the principles of an integrated approach of coastal areas, which attempts through legislative
frameworks to redefine the relationship between land and sea and to reform the role played by the
area that intervenes between them. Subsequently, the term of urban regeneration is approached in
order to understand how this can lead to an overall restructuring of degraded coastal sites in social,
economic and environmental sector. Through the study of urban regeneration practices and
integrated management of industrial coastal areas and taking into account those elements that
have contributed to a gradual change of the city’s identity, this article proposes measures for an
overall consolidation of case study’s waterfront in order to regain its active role for the city and its
inhabitants.