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Greece is a country with a centuries-old history oriented towards the sea and with a long coastline, especially on islands. The Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), which was relatively recently established in the country by Law 4546/2018, as amended by Law 4759/2020, defined the philosophy and tools of this new field of spatial planning. The aim of this article is to critically review the marine spatial planning system in Greece, as it has been formed so far, through the presentation of the first Marine Spatial Framework (MSP) for Greece. The article focuses on issues of applied planning in order to highlight issues such as the spatial level of implementation of the MSP, the relationship between marine and terrestrial spatial planning, the degree of binding nature of the MSP, its interconnection with development policy, but also the geopolitical issues involved in planning. In the light of the particularities that characterize Greek spatial planning, the first MSP, which was prepared in the framework of the research project "THAL-HOR 2" and concerns the Marine Spatial Unit 1 (MSU1) covering the wider area of the North Aegean, is presented. The article starts with a brief presentation of the national institutional framework governing the MSP and its specific characteristics. It then presents in detail the methodological approach followed for the preparation of the proposal of the MSP for the MSU 1 as well as the critical inputs taken into account. The critical elements of the proposal (alternative spatial development scenarios, location and integration identification, marine spatial development pattern, Marine Development Zones and action plan) are then set out, where examples of spatial guidelines and regulations are given. Finally, the conclusions of the article briefly discuss the key issues raised by the preparation of this MSP on the potential and limitations of such a spatial planning tool for the marine space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine and coastal areas are under significant pressures due to the intense concentration of population and activities that often drive in conflicts. Marine spatial plans need to be enacted and implemented, considering the particularities of marine areas, the existing and future activities and uses and their environmental impact and the land–sea interaction. The paper main question concerns the emerge of uses conflicts on marine and coastal areas, with significant uses accumulation. Crete Island is used as the case study. It studied the conflicts or synergies of marine uses as well as their spatial and quantitative representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps the visual impact of mining activities on terrestrial and marine landscapes of the Cyclades islands, Greece, an island complex in the Aegean Sea of particular natural and cultural heritage. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mining activities developed on the islands, many of which are abandoned today. Some of the remaining inactive mines and accompanying structures have been registered as monuments and part of the national industrial heritage. The remaining active mining units conflict for land with the main economic activity today, tourism. The visual impact of the mining units is calculated and mapped, resulting in viewshed analysis which quantifies the impact of mining units on terrestrial and marine landscapes, with emphasis on nominated traditional settlements and mention of non-traditional ones. The quantitative results have shown that the landscape study needs to be incorporated in terrestrial and marine spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper deals with landscape management issues, not only of terrestrial landscape but also of coastal and marine landscape. This paper also proposes a methodology to introduce the landscape dimension in marine zoning and underline the need to include marine landscape as a discrete unit in Greek marine spatial planning. More specifically, this work presents key issues and basic axes related to marine zoning implementation by identifying marine landscape typologies that have emerged based on the visibility of the marine space in structures with negative visual impact that are placed in the terrestrial space. For the empirical part of the study, Crete island is chosen where the coastal and marine exploitation is significant and continues to increase. The methodological approach for the quantitative rendering of visibility is based on viewshed analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal and marine ecosystems are under high pressure from multiple activities that take place in coastal areas. Mapping and assessment of ecosystem services are considered essential to support decision-making in policies on the sustainable management of these areas. In this paper, an integrated indicator has been developed and applied to map and assess Recreation Opportunities that are supplied by coastal and marine ecosystems on the Island of Lesvos, North Aegean, Greece, which is an area of great natural wealth and beauty, but it is under numerous threats from various activities that take place within its boundaries. The proposed indicator integrates biophysical, social and managerial aspects of Ecosystem Services (ES) to assess potential ES flow. It is a flexible methodology that utilizes available data and user-friendly geo-technologies and can be used for local scale assessment. A discussion is carried out on the importance of such methodologies for Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), and recommendations are made as to how this indicator may be improved. • A composite indicator for mapping and assessing coastal and marine Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES). • Integration of biophysical, social and managerial aspects of Ecosystem Services (ES). • Assessment of coastal recreation opportunities. • Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) is of high importance for Marine Spatial Planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has been recognized as an essential tool for reducing the increasing pressures on marine and coastal areas (resulting from human activities and competition) and contributing to sustainable development. Therefore, during the last years many countries have initiated MSP processes towards the implementation of Maritime Spatial Strategies and Marine Spatial Plans. However, a prerequisite for the coordinated and effective MSP is the provision of high-quality spatial data to the responsible parties and the public, through appropriate and easy-to-use tools. This can be succeeded by the development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) that enables the organization of spatial datasets and their distribution through the web. In this paper we propose a development framework and present the actions taken for the implementation of a Marine SDI to support MSP in Greece, and discuss the lessons learned from our so-far experience. • Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) stakeholders require high-quality spatial data. • Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) facilitate the provision of spatial data. • Proposition of a Marine SDI (MSDI) development framework. • Implementation of the first MSDI to support MSP in Greece. • Customization of GeoNode open source content management platform. • Difficulties due to low degree of realization of the INSPIRE Directive in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Maritime Spatial Planning is a piece of legislation (2014/89/EU) of the European Union that must be implemented by all member countries to enable management of their waters in a more coherent way to reduce conflicts, encourage investments, increase cross-border cooperation and protect the environment. Cyprus and Greece are working together in the frame of the THALCHOR2 project to implement this directive. From the Cyprus point of view, this directive has been a unique opportunity to modernize its Hydrographic and Geodetic Infrastructure to enable and facilitate the generation of reliable marine geospatial information. Concordantly, a network of integrated state-of-the-art multi-sensor stations has been established along the shoreline of the government-controlled territories to seamlessly monitor sea level, vertical crustal motion and meteorological parameters. This research provides insight into the implementation of this infrastructure and the data processing workflow to determine tidal levels. Furthermore, the first results acquired after exploiting two years of observations are presented along with initial aspects concerning mean sea-level variability in the Southeastern Mediterranean region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Location selection for offshore wind farms is a major challenge for renewable energy policy, marine spatial planning, and environmental conservation. This selection constitutes a multi-criteria decision-making problem, through which parameters like wind velocity, water depth, shorelines, fishing areas, shipping routes, environmental protection areas, transportation, and military zones should be jointly investigated. The aim of the present study was thus to develop an integrated methodology for assessing the siting of bottom-fixed offshore wind farms in two different countries (with different legal, political, and socio/economic characteristics). Our methodology combined multi-criteria decision-making methods and geographical information systems and was implemented in Cyclades (Greece) and in the sea area of İzmir region (Turkey). Experts used fuzzy sets and linguistic terms to achieve more consistent and independent rankings and results. In the Turkish region, the results showed that 519 km 2 (10.23%) of the study area is suitable for offshore wind farms, while in the Greek region, only 289 km 2 (3.22%) of the study area was found to be suitable. This spatial suitability analysis may contribute to provide some useful recommendations for the spatial marine planning at the regional scale, as well as for the preliminary assessment of new offshore wind farms in both countries.