Managing Urban Landscape Towards the Sustainable City: a Case Study from Northern Greece

One of the areas of human activity which exerts severe pressure on the environment is the management of urban landscape. Many of the modern Greek cities have experienced intense urbanization and expanding without the appropriate means to support them. The continuous expansion of built environment, the degradation of living conditions due to pollution etc., are some of the factors that threaten the contemporary urban environment and hinder progress towards the sustainable city. The aim of this paper is to map the problems and opportunities that a city of Northern Greece, Komotini, with rich natural, historical and multicultural backgrounds, presents. An attempt is made to evaluate the city's current situation as well as to propose some main targeted development policies for ameliorating the urban environment of the city. The ultimate goal is to reorganize the basic factors that compose the function of this urban center, following the principles of sustainable development.