Land use transport interaction models: Application perspectives for the city of Thessaloniki

Land use patterns and transport system are considered to be the two basic components of the urban development process, and as such they have been in the core of spatial planning policies for the last 4 decades. Land use transport interaction models are computer tools that could help us understand land use changes and organization of human activities in relation to existing or planned transport infrastructure. In this context this paper examines the perspectives of applying a land use transport interaction model for the city of Thessaloniki. Obtaining, preparing and validating socioeconomic data is a crucial part of the modeling process, therefore an extensive search of the required data was performed. The quest for appropriate and suitable data concluded with a detailed recording of emerged problems. In response to the inability of finding suitable data to perform the first step of the modeling process i.e. calibration, the paper concludes with some thoughts related to data availability, organization and standardization issues. Last but not least, the paper stresses out the significance of data availability for utilization of land use transport models, so as not to remain purely academic products but tools with practical value in planning