Local Urban Plan for the Municipalities of Chios, Oinousses and the Heroic Island of Psara
On 01.06.2023, a Contract was signed between the Consortium “GAIA S.A. ΜΕΛΕΤΟΝ – D. MAMOUNIS AND Partners” – “TZIRINIS APOSTOLOS OF THEMISTOKLES” – “DELCO E.P.E. – N. DELIGIANNIDIS & CO. General and Specialized Consulting Engineers E.P.E.” – “GEORGIOS DIDASKALOU & CO. E.P.” with the registered office “GEOTER – DIDASKALOU E.P.” – “KONSTANTINOS, NIKOLAOS, DIMITRIOS CHATZIS O.E.” trading as “DKNDENGINEERS O.E.” and the Technical Chamber of Greece for the preparation of the study entitled “Local Urban Plan of the Municipality of Chios”.
The study being prepared for the Municipalities of Chios, Oinousses and the Heroic Island of Psara constitutes a first-level urban planning study pursuant to Law 4759/2020. It forms part of the “Konstantinos Doxiadis” Urban Planning Reforms Programme, which aims at the rapid and effective completion of spatial and urban planning throughout the country. The study is being carried out in accordance with the new specifications for Local Urban Plans (Government Gazette B 3545/2021) and the revised urban planning standards (Government Gazette D 200/2024).
The Local Urban Plan (LUP) study is a complex process that includes, in addition to the main spatial planning study, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the proposed spatial planning interventions, a Geological Suitability Assessment for newly designated urban development areas, as well as a study for the temporary demarcation study of streams and the accompanying topographic survey.
The study aims to highlight and protect the natural environment of the Municipalities of Chios, Oinousses and the Heroic Island of Psara, strengthen existing economic activities and foster new development opportunities, enhance social and technical infrastructure networks, improve the quality of life for residents and visitors, and increase the resilience of the area to natural hazards and disasters.
Through the LUP, the development potential of the study area will be identified, while land uses and building regulations will be defined across the entire extent of the Municipal Units under study, including all settlements. The plan will also determine potential needs for residential expansion, tourism development areas, zones for productive and economic activities, and other strategic land uses. In addition, it will set out the actions and infrastructure projects required to support the area’s sustainable development over a 15-year planning horizon.
Within the framework of the Local Urban Plan (LUP) study and in accordance with the new Presidential Decree regarding the boundary delineation of the settlements with a population under 2.000 inhabitants (Government Gazette D 194/2025), the Boundary Delineation / Re-approval / Re-delineation of the Municipalities’ settlements with a population under 2.000 inhabitants is also carried out, taking into account the criteria of the said Presidential Decree.
The Local Urban Plan (LUP) constitutes a fundamental prerequisite for the future sustainable development of the Municipalities, which will ensure a high quality of life for their residents, highlight and protect the natural and cultural environment, provide new possibilities and opportunities for activity development to investors, and serve as the core tool for the overall planning of the Municipalities.
Key characteristics of the study area include its natural environment, which represents one of its most significant comparative advantages. The city of Chios concentrates a wide range of supra-local and local-level services. Commercial activities, social services and infrastructure are also strongly concentrated mainly in the southern and eastern parts of the island, resulting in a relative economic lag in the northern area. There is also a clear need to locate activities in suitable areas with good accessibility to the main road network and proximity to key transport infrastructure, such as the Port of Chios and the airport.
In particular, for the Municipalities of Oinousses and the Heroic Island of Psara, emphasis is placed on strengthening the primary sector and diversifying the local economy through sustainable tourism development and specialised service provision (e.g. maritime education in Oinousses). The support of rural areas and primary sector activities such as livestock farming, fisheries and grazing constitutes a key development priority for Psara and Oinousses.
According to the requirements of the study and the technical specifications of the LUPs, cartographic representation is carried out using a Geographic Information System (G.I.S.). Therefore, appropriate GIS software was used for the preparation of the study, such as QuantumGIS (QGIS: http://qgis.org/), an open-source application in which the consortium has extensive experience, and which is used for creating, modifying, analyzing, and presenting geographic data. Within the QGIS user interface (as in other similar GIS programs), there is an area for displaying spatial data (map view) and an area for managing the map legend, where the names and symbols of the data are listed. The main advantage of QGIS (as well as other similar GIS programs) is its ability to import, visualize, manage, modify, and create data contained within a PostgreSQL database, in accordance with the PostGIS extension standard (both of which are also open-source applications).