Settlements of private urbanization in Greece: processes of production, inventory, and analysis on processes and function

Abstract

The notion of private urbanization in areas that have been characterised as Areas of Specially Regulated Urbanization broadens the context of participation of private sector in urban planning while introducing better standards in housing production. This article seeks to present an evaluation of the institution of private urbanization, by analysing the outcomes of a census of the settlements produced by private initiative, which took place under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and Climate Change of Greece. The collected data concerns the number, the geographical distribution, the size, the urban typology, the land use, the required time periods and the bureaucratic impediments for the acquisition of the necessary official approvals and the production process of the settlements. Data collected through the census was statistically elaborated and a Geographic Information System was used for the production of the necessary thematic maps. An incentive for the research was the potential for introduction of significant new methods in housing production by the mechanism of private urbanization, which is considered as a useful tool, capable, under certain conditions, of improving the quality of urban environment and to restrict urban sprawl.