Magnesia is located in the East side of the Thessaly Region in the centre of Greece. It comprises the peninsula of Magnesia enclosing the Pagasetic Gulf, as well as the Northern Sporades islands of Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonnisos. Magnesia is crowned by Othris Mountain, in the Southern part of the area and Pelion Mountain in the North part.
Magnesia Prefecture occupies 2.636 sq. km, corresponding to the 18% of the surface of the region and has 206.995 inhabitants (2001). Volos, capital city and economic centre of Magnesia Prefecture, counts 82.439 inhabitants and occupies 26,5 sq. km. The economy of the prefecture shows a balanced development of agriculture, industry and tourism. Its privileged location in the centre of Greece, the particularly active Harbour of Volos- the main export centre of Thessaly, as well as the recent developed large scale infrastructure works allow easy connections to all the vicinal areas.
The Development Agency of Magnesia (AN.E.M.) S.A. is a share company established in 1997 with the aim to offer scientific and technical support to the Prefecture of Magnesia, mainly in the field of development policies that the Prefecture wanted to pursue. AN.E.M. formulated its development strategy on the basis of the productive and social character of the region of Magnesia and the prospects of the region's economic factors within a rapidly changing and strongly competitive economic environment. The main aspects of this strategy are:
The large diversity of the areas of interest (mountainous areas, coastal zone, and islands of Northern Sporades) leads to the emergence of a wide range of thematic fields mainly regarding the integration of the territory, the enhancement of the mobility (especially for the remote areas) and the improvement of interconnections among the areas. More in particular, the main fields of interest are the following:
- Sustainable City Planning, with emphasis on transportation planning (mass transit systems, urban and interurban lines) in combination to the protection of the environment (examining ways of reducing both noise and pollution)
- Improving intermodality of different transportation systems: tools and methods for better organising the transportation systems
- Port Connections, with emphasis on ways for improving both passenger and freight activity, and promoting in particular rail-port-truck intermodal freight villages
- Management and improvement of the parking areas for the urban centers
The main scope of the participation in the Connected Cities Network is to identify ways, through the exchange of experiences and diffusion of good practices, for increasing mobility in three different levels:
- Urban transportation, with the aim to optimise the intermodality between current transportation systems
- Interurban transportation, focusing mainly on remote areas
- Port connections, improving the connections to the islands of Northern Sporades, both for freight and passengers transport
The results of the activities of the network are expected to enhance current policy instruments both regarding the Optimisation of the Local Transportation System and the incorporation of the transportation systems in the Spatial Planning Processes.
