Papers by Thomas Panagopoulos
In last decades, the phenomenon of shrinking cities has many examples in most developed countries... more In last decades, the phenomenon of shrinking cities has many examples in most developed countries. Old industrialized cities of Europe have led to shrinking, in some ways similar to those in American metropolises like Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. This is particularly the case of Eastern Europe, where the combination of post-socialist and post-fordist transformation processes led to exceptionally severe shrinkage phenomena. The shrinking city syndrome is leaving planners and city officials with, among other things, the challenge of preserving and reusing buildings with architectural and cultural interest. Derelict and contaminated industrial sites are unrealized resources for initiating urban regeneration and ecological restoration. To exemplify the importance of those spaces in the urban landscape, this presentation will analyze two industrial landscape reclamation projects realized in Portugal during the last decade (Parque Tejo-Trancão-Expo 98 and Braga Stadium-Euro 2004) and compare them with other examples from around the world. The significance of those projects to achieve a sustainable urban landscape is discussed. This presentation will show that the industrial landscape should be viewed as a resource and its recovery as an opportunity to develop new multi-functional landscapes.
Cidades que registam períodos de declínio populacional têm vindo gradualmente a afetar um número ... more Cidades que registam períodos de declínio populacional têm vindo gradualmente a afetar um número crescente de cidades, de diversas dimensões e localizadas igualmente em um número crescente de regiões e países: desde os Estados Unidos, à Austrália e ao Japão e a uma multiplicidade de países europeus. A perda de habitantes em cidades tem sido con - siderada a variável mais emblemática na avaliação de que as cidades estão a ficar mais pe - quenas. No entanto, o declínio económico de algumas cidades está igualmente na origem de diversas situações observadas de redução do número de habitantes. Pese embora estes dois movimentos estejam muitas vezes interconectados, outras razões associadas a alterações políticas, ambientais ou de preferências das famílias podem estar igualmente na origem de movimentos de saída de residentes das cidades. As políticas para lidar com o fenómeno das cidades estarem a ficar mais pequenas subdi - videm -se em duas categorias: as que visam contrariar o declínio ...
The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
During the past few decades, amenity value of forest has been increasing significantly. The fores... more During the past few decades, amenity value of forest has been increasing significantly. The forests of Latvia cover about 56% of the total area; more than 80% of Latvia inhabitants use the forests to satisfy their needs. Sustainable use of forest requires detailed mapping of the forest cover and assessment of its suitability as a recreational facility. The demand for forest recreation depends on the number of inhabitants, weekenders, vacationers, and the type of recreation or recreational activity they expect. It also depends on the size of the town, the distance between town and the forest, forest density, and spatial distribution of forest areas. The objective of this study has been to analyze the present recreational requirements, assess accessibility to recreational areas, and to facilitate social functioning of recreational forests with the help of Geo-information. Recreational suitability was assessed based on the existing plans, combined with theoretical and empirical studies on preferences and use of forest. A questionnaire, together with map-based (GIS technique) indicators of the most popular activities for recreation, was used to obtain information on the distribution of visitors in forest blocks of Riga city region, each year. This research helps in improving the existing methodologies of forest management and in formulating forest recreational policy.
Cities, 2016
Cities develop according to different patterns, undergoing population growth during some periods ... more Cities develop according to different patterns, undergoing population growth during some periods and decline 17 (shrinkage) during others. Theories attempting to understand these behaviours include: 1) shrinkage is a natural 18 process in the life cycle of a city, alternating with periods of growth, or 2) shrinkage is an extreme event that 19 places cities into a continuous decline process with no return to population growth. We use retrospective data 20 over a period of 130 years to study 25 Portuguese cities currently facing population decline, and show that 21 both theories coexist in time and space. Five types of shrinking city are revealed: "Persistent Early Shrinkage" 22 due to exodus from the rural periphery, "Metropolitan Shrinkage" due to the challenges of urban sprawl, "Recent 23 Shrinkage" in de-industrialisation hotspots, "Cyclic Shrinkage" occurring in political transformation cores, and 24 "Mild Shrinkage" due to lifestyle disamenity. As diversity of city population trajectories appears to be the 25 norm in both Portugal and other Western European countries, the incorporation of this range into the 26 management of urban transitions is recommended in order to reinforce city resilience.
The relative attractiveness of cities as places to live determines population movements in or out... more The relative attractiveness of cities as places to live determines population movements in or out of them. Understanding the appealing features of a city is fundamental to local governments, particularly for cities facing population decline. Pull and push attributes of cities can include economic aspects, the availability of amenities and psychological constructs, initiating a discussion around which factors are more relevant in explaining migration. However, a pull-push approach has been underexplored in studies of shrinking cities. In the present study, we contribute to the discussion by identifying pull and push factors in Portuguese shrinking cities. Data were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire survey of 701 residents in four shrinking cities: Oporto, Barreiro, Peso da Régua and Moura. Factor analysis and automatic linear modelling were used to analyse the data. Our results support previous findings that the economic activity of a city is the most relevant feature for retaining residents. However, other characteristics specific to each city, especially those related to heritage and natural beauty, are also shown to influence a city's attractiveness as a place to live. The cause of population shrinkage is also found to influence residents' assessments of the pull and push attributes of each city. Furthermore, the results show the relevance of social ties and of place attachment to inhabitants' intention to continue living in their city of residence.
Traditional means of urban planning are not satisfying the new demands placed by a modern city. E... more Traditional means of urban planning are not satisfying the new demands placed by a modern city. Existing collaborative decision-support system concentrate on providing the technical backgrounds instead of creating of attractive and powerful platform to involve the general public in decision-making process of urban planning. In the present paper two significant trends – participation and visualization – with direct implications for urban planning are discussed. 'Second Life' is an interactive and effective three-dimensional virtual environment, which can increase sense of shared presence, social interaction, communication and thinking, and so promote the construction of meaning and knowledge. Virtual environment provides the opportunity to simulate the actual policy scenarios, development of natural environment and landscapes, spatial characteristics of ecosystem, etc. In virtual environment public have the opportunity to use their creative and expressive voice and to do so i...
The Municipality of Itanos is nearby the palm forest of Vai, one of the most beautiful landscapes... more The Municipality of Itanos is nearby the palm forest of Vai, one of the most beautiful landscapes in Greece. The local people believe that the palm forest functions as a comparative advantage and contributes to the tourism development of their region, by attracting tourism of a higher quality, although its promotion is characterized as mediocre. They perceive tourism as the most important sector for the development of their region, followed by agriculture, animal breeding and fishing. Their view is that the actions undertaken by the relevant authorities for the protection and enhancement of the palm forest at Vai are not the required ones. They are more satisfied with the actions of the local government and lesser so by those of the central government (administration). The locals believe that tourism development has had a positive effect on the palm forest.
Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
During the past few decades, amenity value of forest has been increasing significantly. The fores... more During the past few decades, amenity value of forest has been increasing significantly. The forests of Latvia cover about 56% of the total area; more than 80% of Lat- via inhabitants use the forests to satisfy their needs. Sus- tainable use of forest requires detailed mapping of the forest cover and assessment of its suitability as a recrea- tional facility. The demand for forest recreation depends on the number of inhabitants, weekenders, vacationers, and the type of recreation or recreational activity they expect. It also depends on the size of the town, the dis- tance between town and the forest, forest density, and spatial distribution of forest areas. The objective of this study has been to analyze the present recreational require- ments, assess accessibility to recreational areas, and to facilitate social functioning of recreational forests with the help of Geo-information. Recreational suitability was assessed based on the existing plans, combined with theo- retical and empir...
Regional Studies, Regional Science, 2015
Population decline in cities ('shrinking cities') is an increasing international phenomenon. The ... more Population decline in cities ('shrinking cities') is an increasing international phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to determine citizens' policy preferences for tackling shrinkage and to ascertain whether different causes of shrinkage lead to different preferences, on the basis of which we identify viable urban regeneration strategies to implement in Portugal's shrinking cities. This information was obtained by a face-to-face questionnaire survey of 701 residents in four case study cities, who were asked to rank five types of policy: economic revival, safety and accessibility, public services, building interventions, and environmental actions. The results show no differences between cities regarding the policy identified by residents as being most important (economic revival). However, differences between cities in the second and third most important policies were observed and are linked to the particularities of shrinkage in each city. Furthermore, we found a strong link between the ranking of the policies and the demographic and socioeconomic profiles of respondents, which also differ between cities. Younger respondents ranked economic revival higher, whereas older residents ranked safety and accessibility higher. Building rehabilitation was ranked as important mostly by lower-income residents, whereas improvement in public services was identified as being important by the residents of smaller cities in the interior of the country. Giving voice to citizens and allowing them input into policy options appears to be of value for defining the most appropriate policies to apply in shrinking cities.
Human occupation in rural tropical watersheds has been contributing to a steady degradation of wa... more Human occupation in rural tropical watersheds has been contributing to a steady degradation of water and other natural resources. Agricultural expansion, deforestation and a lack of sound sanitary equipments to treat wastewater are conditions that threaten the environmental quality of the Environmental Protection Area of Brilhante (APA Brilhante), located in Santa Catarina, South Brazil. The area, being largely covered by
Landscape reclamation at the lignite spoil heaps of Ptolemaida, Greece is complex and difficult d... more Landscape reclamation at the lignite spoil heaps of Ptolemaida, Greece is complex and difficult due to adverse ecological conditions. Natural revegetation could be the first step before reclamation began, thus it was surveyed and 7 plant communities were identified, described and mapped. In order to understand the variation of some soil physical and chemical properties in an experimental block and its effect on revegetation production, graphical interpretation of those soil properties was done with the use of geostatistics in a geographic information system (GIS). Soil properties were related to natural vegetation succession and both could be indicators in assessment of reclamation potentiality on the site. Geostatistics were used to estimate soil properties and natural vegetation composition with a minimum number of samples. A geographic information system with geostatistic support helped to map with precision site quality without increasing sampling cost and facilitated solutions ...
Spatial and Organizational Dynamics Discussion …, 2012
The present paper present some of the adverse ecological parameters studied for the assessment of... more The present paper present some of the adverse ecological parameters studied for the assessment of reclamation of the lignite spoil heaps of Ptolemaida in North Greece. Natural revegetation was the first step before reclamation began and it was studied. Natural ...
International Journal of Energy and …, 2008
AbstractHuman occupation in rural tropical watersheds has been contributing to a steady degradat... more AbstractHuman occupation in rural tropical watersheds has been contributing to a steady degradation of water and other natural resources. Agricultural expansion, deforestation and a lack of sound sanitary equipments to treat wastewater are conditions that threaten the ...
Proceedings of the 3rd …, 2010
Abstract:-Growing urbanization and rapid development of the cities create conflict situations bet... more Abstract:-Growing urbanization and rapid development of the cities create conflict situations between development of building areas and natural areas. A built environment represents a high level of intervention in the ecosystem, altering the landscape and disturbing the ...
Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Efficient …, 2008
Microclimatic design requires knowledge of the climate conditions, understanding of the ways that... more Microclimatic design requires knowledge of the climate conditions, understanding of the ways that landscape elements affect microclimate and methods of applying this knowledge through landscape design to create microclimates that are comfortable for people and minimize the energy use of buildings. In this article it will be introduced the most important components and characteristics of microclimatic landscape design. Green roof ecosystem services in urban areas will be also introduced and future research needs will be mentioned.
Built Environment, 2012
and Italy will lose, respectively, 28, 16, 14, 7 and 5 per cent of the population by 2050, compar... more and Italy will lose, respectively, 28, 16, 14, 7 and 5 per cent of the population by 2050, compared with the 2010 figures. Causes and consequences emerging from shrinking are being identified in recent studies (Frank, 2004; Muller and Siedentop, 2004). However, the study of the implications of shrinkage for local governments and municipalities are rare. Koziol's (2004) study is one of the few exceptions. This paper focuses on shrinkage, evaluated primarily by the decrease in population numbers in Portuguese municipalities, and subsequently by the changes that are observed on the labour force, real estate value, and other municipal amenities, but without establishing any causal relationships among them. The primary variable of analysis is the demographic trend. Population decline is frequently used as the main indicator in the research of shrinkage (see Rink et al., 2009), although the term cannot be confined merely to a population problem since it embraces other issues like housing vacancies, economic decline or land misallocation. The municipality is used as the territorial unit to evaluate shrinkage in Portugal since, in this country, local governments act at the municipal level; the Portuguese mainland does not have regional governments, or urban governments. More than half of the Portuguese mainland municipalities have population decline problems. Portuguese local governments have reasons to be concerned with population decline as the major financing sources are dependent on the number of inhabitants. In this sense, local governments tend to encourage growth. Shrinkage in Portugal has different causes, but we look particularly at those occurring in rural-and medium-sized municipalities. The main goal of this paper is to systematise the most implemented strategies by Portuguese central and local governments and identify their results in dealing with population decline.
… , T., Vaz, T. and Antunes, M.( …, 2008
Post-industrial landscapes are frequently left abandoned; however, throughout the last decades, t... more Post-industrial landscapes are frequently left abandoned; however, throughout the last decades, this attitude has been changing given the need to protect the environment. Currently the recovery and redevelopment of those spaces are more common and it is acknowledged that this kind of interventions can contribute to achieve sustainable development. In this sense, it is important to understand if those strategies contribute effectively to protect the environment, to improve the landscape, boost economic activity and enhance life quality helping in fact to accomplish the objective of sustainable development. With the intention to analyze the relevance of those interventions, this article presents a comparative analysis between two distinct case studies: the reclamation and redevelopment proposals for the S. Domingos mine in Portugal and the Aidu mine in Estonia.
Soil erosion risk assessment at the watershed of Alqueva is urgently needed to conserve water res... more Soil erosion risk assessment at the watershed of Alqueva is urgently needed to conserve water resources and prevent the accelerated dam siltation. The variation of soil properties is one of the most important reasons for the spatial variability of vegetation cover and erosion. In order to achieve more and better management of rangelands around the largest reservoir of Europe, it is essential to evaluate how the soil properties as well plant cover in regard to the introduced change in distribution are estimated. Therefore, using geo-statistical techniques, this study was conducted to assess the relation of the spatial variability of soil erosion to soil properties. The statistical results showed that most variables had a normal distribution. Graphical interpretation of soil properties was performed using ordinary kriging. There were high correlation between vegetation cover, soil texture (sand and silt fraction), hydraulic conductivity and soil erodibility values. The lowest and the highest coefficient of variation were found with organic matter (2.17%) and vegetation cover (60.14%), respectively. The semi-variogram analysis showed that the effective range vary from 150m for silt to 20100m for the K of the soil, with optimal distance to determine erodibility the 1250m. The parameters of soil texture showed more spatial dependency than those of the organic matter. As a whole, the maps obtained by Kriging showed that the soil properties and spatial variability of vegetation cover did not have a random pattern and depended on the conditions of the region.
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Papers by Thomas Panagopoulos