D13.1 ClimaGen Thessaloniki City Report 1

Thessaloniki participates in ClimaGen as a Replication City, applying the project’s renaturing and net-zero ambition to the western entrance of the city — an approximately 2.46 km² area (2,457,081 m², or 2,642,164 m² including the abandoned “train cemetery” rail-yards) that represents roughly 10% of the Municipality and is its least green, most fragmented and most socially vulnerable district. The area concentrates the challenges facing mid-sized Mediterranean port cities: post-industrial dereliction, land ownership fragmented across municipal, rail, port, heritage, state and private actors, concentrated vulnerability among Roma, migrant and low-income communities, and an acute green deficit — only about 6.3% green cover, in a country where provision averages some 2.6 m² per person against 9–30 m² in most EU cities. It is therefore both a critical entry point to the city and a test case for combining climate adaptation, nature restoration and social inclusion under the ClimaGen motto of working “for, by and with vulnerable neighbourhoods”.

The report documents progress to M18, June 2026, with the area in the co-creation phase of the ClimaGen innovation cycle. A completed baseline survey divides the territory into four sub-areas (A′–D′) along a dense-to-derelict north-east/south-west gradient, plus a 93,072 m² pilot block, and anchors the work in the new General Urban Plan (FEK 199/D/2024) and EU frameworks including the Cities Mission, the New European Bauhaus and the Nature Restoration Law.

Engagement and governance rest on a hybrid model pairing the academic lead (AUTh/MDAT) with civic host Mamagea to overcome residents’ distrust, supported by a 15-activity methodological roadmap to 2028, an inclusiveness strategy prioritising vulnerable groups, and formal alignment with the sister Horizon project ReGenWest. The renaturing portfolio is organised in four clusters — streets, squares and playgrounds; green roofs and façades; blue-green stormwater interventions; and heritage-linked landscapes (the FIX brewery complex and the ~185,000 m² rail-yard) — complemented by pop-up interventions and participatory spatial mapping.

Monitoring combines GIS analysis, a tree inventory (77 trees, 16 species in the pilot block) and the Biotope Area Factor (BAF). Applied to the pilot block, the portfolio raises BAF from 0.062 to 0.219 — a 3.5-fold improvement — driven largely by some 5,219 m² of green roofs and 7,153 m² of green façades. A KPI framework spanning climate adaptation, mitigation, nature and people aligns with the project-wide Greening and Satisfaction indicators.

Integrated actions build multi-level coordination through a transversal municipal contact point, contribute to EU Missions and the NEB, and design long-term sustainability through institutional embedding, civic anchoring of the ClimaLab and a “Green Ambassadors” community. The report records clear early successes — the completed baseline, the quantified BAF scenario, the engagement roadmap and the Mamagea and ReGenWest partnerships — alongside persisting challenges: fragmented ownership, social vulnerability, the green-maintenance funding gap, heritage constraints and a local construction-capacity gap. Next steps (M19–M30) focus on the first physical interventions, extending the BAF assessment to all four sub-areas, and deepening engagement with the most vulnerable communities.