Serafeim Polyzos

An overview of urban-rural land use interactions in Greece

Purpose: The present paper focuses on investigating the principal land use changes in Greece from 1971-1991 and attempts to uncover possible interactions between urban, rural and forest uses. Findings: The interactions do not remain stable in their direction (positive or negative) and importance (high of low) for the two time periods that have been investigated. Practical implications: The correlation analysis can provide useful insights concerning the proximate and underlying causes of land use change. Originality/value: There are no papers investigating land use changes in Greece in the prefectural administrative level covering the whole country.

Introducing a new centrality measure from the transportation network analysis in Greece

This paper introduces a new centrality measure, nominated by the authors as mobility centrality (Cm), which arose during the study of the interregional road network in Greece. The proposed measure is constructed by the use of the anagogic method considering the formula of the kinetic energy of a particle in Physics and adjusting its mathematical analogue to the case of the interregional road network. The new centrality measure is estimated to be useful for the operational analysis of a network (such as the analysis of network flows), since it characterizes as central these vertices that appear to have the greatest tendency to attract or expel network flows. The ability of the proposed centrality measure to illustrate flow tendencies was examined empirically by correlating and regressing mobility centrality to the commuting status of the Greek interregional network and to four of the most common existing centrality measures (betweenness, closeness, straightness and degree centrality) of the available data. The empirical analysis indicated that the proposed centrality measure (Cm) presents sufficient ability to describe the status of the Greek interregional commuting system and it is believed that it is able to describe the inner potential that produces flows in a network.

Decomposing multilayer transportation networks using complex network analysis: a case study for the Greek aviation network

This article studies the topology of the multiplex Greek Aviation Network (GAN) consisting of layers representing networks of the aviation companies that operate in the regional Greek aviation market, by using complex network analysis and empirical techniques. The purpose of the study is to decode the strategic plans of the aviation companies constituting multiplex network’s layers and to evaluate which layer contributes more in the composition of the overlaid GAN. Secondarily, this paper evaluates the operational utility of a new centrality measure, named mobility centrality, regarding its ability to quantify the potential that a node attribute induces to the topology of the network. Under an overall assessment, this article advances multilayer network analysis by applying a multivariate regression technique for evaluating in common the participation of each layer to the formation of the overlaid network and it provides insights on transportation management and policy.

The contribution of ANN’s simple perceptron pattern to inequalities measurement in Regional Science

The present paper presents a synthetic approach to the XOR operation structure combining the cognitive matter of different fields of scientific study in order to elect further utility of this operation for the inequalities measurement in Regional Science. The observation of structural similarities, between the simple perceptron pattern, in artificial neural networks (ANN), and an XOR binary logic gate, in Digital Electronics Theory authorizes these two models to be considered identical for inequalities detection, under the presumption that both of them can provide a solution for the XOR problem. The solution of the XOR problem for a simple perceptron pattern introduces a new inequalities index, aroused as a generalization of the XOR problem’s solution for the ANN simple perceptron model. The new index appears to operate satisfactorily in Regional Science’s inequalities research, providing a significant similar behavior in comparison with the Theil index and performing better in cases that the Theil index calculation presupposes transformation treatment.

Analyzing the Location Decisions of Agro-Industrial Investments in Greece

This article examines empirically the factors determining the agro-industrial investments in Greece and their impact on tourism development. Firstly, the determinants influencing the spatial configuration, the socioeconomic forces and the political framework of the agro-industrial investments in Greece are examined theoretically, according to the literature considered by Regional Science. At next, a multi-ordinal regression analysis is applied on the determinants elected theoretically, utilizing statistical data from Greece that describe the period 2004-2008. The results of the analysis are interpreted under the regional developmental perspective, constituting an indirect evaluation of the Greek Developmental Laws 3299/04 and 3522/06, applied by the Government to orientate the developmental dynamics of the agro-industry in Greece. Finally, a further analysis is applied comparing the agro-industrial investments with the tourism dynamics in Greece, indicating a field of policy implementation.

The Evolution and Spatial Dynamics of Coastal Cities in Greece

The procedure of human evolution has been always connected with the concepts of space and time. Communities that existed in the same chronological period in different geographic locations, such as communities that existed in the same geographic location at different eras, present various patterns of development. This statement indicates, on one hand, the significance of the spatial parameter to the Economic and Regional Analysis and, on the other hand, the directions that the Economic Research should be oriented to, in order to provide more complete outcomes. From the amount of spatial attributes that a geographic location may possess, the present article deals with the coastal one. Coastal areas have played diachronically a leading role to the development of human civilization, ought to their geographical characteristics, focused on to the seaside location , which provides many transportation advantages, such as development of ports (Li, 2003), commodity (trade development) (Cori, 1999) and also environmental advantages, such as mild climate and natural beauty (Yeung, 2001). The purpose of this chapter is to study the evolution and the spatial dynamics of coastal cities, through a spatial, statistical and regional analytic approach, in order to recognize and to interpret the patterns that describe this evolution, under the regional economic and policy perspective.

Informal Housing in Greece: A Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis at the Regional Level

Abstract This paper deals with the primary causes of informal housing in Greece as well as the observed differentiations in informal housing patterns across space. The spatial level of analysis is the prefectural administrative level. The results of the multinomial logistic regression analysis indicate that Greek prefectures differ in the way they experience the informal housing phenomenon. An explanation for the observed differences may be the separate development paths followed and the diverse range of economic activities in each prefecture. The Greek state has not made provisions for creating the necessary ‘urban land stock’ in each prefecture, so that everyone interested can find land parcels at an affordable price. On the contrary, the state encourages the informal housing activity by legalizing large areas of such activity sporadically and by introducing legislative initiatives of limited success in dealing with the problem.

Enterprises' locational decisions and interregional highways: an empiric investigation in Greec

The interaction between transportation infrastructures and land uses constitutes one of the most basic phenomena in urban and rural areas. The construction of a highway improves mobility and thus increases the density and value of land uses by creating the necessary conditions for the economic development of the regions that it crosses. In this article the contribution of enterprises located in areas near interregional highways to regional development is examined. Concretely, the contribution of these enterprises to the economic development of the regions in which they are established is investigated using multiple regression analysis and with the completion of questionnaires by enterprises located near interregional areas of the Athens–Thessaloniki national highways and near the cities of Lamia and Larissa.

Public works, investments and their regional economic effects

This paper presents the possibility of planning Public Works and Investments in general, according to the economic effects caused to the economy of the regions, where they are constructed. The interregional Input-Output analysis and, in particular the multiregional input — output model is at the “core” of this research. With the use of trade coefficients and the creation of interregional multipliers, the possibility of estimation of the output for every region and the general economic changes, which can be caused by a public investment program, is given. It is also possible to estimate the changes in regional inequalities, as well as the regulation of this program, so that, economic development can also be successful, apart from regional development. This paper refers mainly to the general economic changes, which are brought about during the implementation of the works. These are usually the short-term effects, but there is the possibility for an analogous regulation and the estimation for the corresponding long-term effects.

The Egnatia Motorway and The Changes in Interregional Trade in Greece: An Ex Ante Assessment

The Egnatia Motorway and The Changes in Interregional Trade in Greece: An Ex Ante Assessment The Egnatia Motorway, located in the northern part of Greece, constitutes one of the most important, as well as ambitious, projects of the Trans-European Transport Networks programme (TETN) funded by the European Commission. It is expected to greatly influence the spatial economic relationships of several regions across the country. The motorway crosses all administrative regions of Northern Greece, and the expectations currently sustained by the public as regards its contribution to regional development are exceptionally great. As numerous empirical studies have already shown, the most important changes in regional economy induced by interregional transportation infrastructure are associated with trade flows between different regions. This paper analyses the major determinants of interregional trade in Greece and estimates the changes in interregional trade flows which the construction of the Egnatia Motorway is capable of generating.