According to the 2021 census, 643,450 people lived in the Athens municipality, making it the largest city in Greece. The second-most populated municipality, Thessaloniki, had approximately 319,050 inhabitants.

Around 3.15 million people lived in the Athens metropolitan area, making it the largest metropolitan area in Greece in 2021. The second-most populated metropolitan area, Thessaloniki, had approximately 802,390 inhabitants. At the municipality level, Athens was the largest city in the country with 643,452 residents.

This dataset presents detailed 100-meter LCZ maps for the five most populated cities in Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, Patras, and Heraklion), along with key urban form parameters, such as building height, and height-to-width ratio. These data were developed using a hybrid GIS-based and remote sensing-based framework that incorporates ultra-high-resolution elevation models (0.8 m), supported by Copernicus Earth Observation and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) datasets. Special attention was given to ensure seamless integration with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, enabling highly-resolved numerical weather analysis for the targeted urban areas. This was achieved by including in the dataset city-specific surface and urban canopy properties for each LCZ class, assigned through a Land Use / Land Cover (LU/LC) classification at 100 m spatial resolution in WRF compliant format. The LU/LC data were constructed by integrating the LCZ urban classes with CORINE land cover information for the natural areas.

The dataset is organized into three main directories: (i) Urban_Parameters, (ii) Local_Climate_Zones, and (iii) WRF_Input:
(i) The Urban_Parameters directory contains 100-meter GeoTIFF maps of building heights (H) and height-to-width-ratios (H/W) for the five Greek cities., these are projected in UTM Zone 34N (EPSG:32634), except for Heraklion, which is provided in UTM Zone 35N (EPSG: 32635). The file naming convention follows the format: cityName_urbanParameter.tif (e.g., athens_buildingHeight.tif).

(ii) The Local_Climate_Zones directory contains 100-meter GeoTIFF LCZ maps for five Greek cities (Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, Patras, and Heraklion). These maps include urban LCZ classes corresponding to LCZs 1 to 10 and LCZ E. Similar to the urban parameter’s maps, LCZs are projected in UTM Zone 34N, except for Heraklion (UTM Zone 35N). The file naming convention follows the format: cityName_lcz.tif (e.g., athens_lcz.tif).

(iii) The WRF_Input directory is divided into three subdirectories:
(a) CLC_LCZ_WRF_tif: This subdirectory contains merged CORINE Land Cover (CLC) and LCZ maps, forming a gridded Land Use / Land Cover (LU/LC) dataset, designed to be used as the input surface classes in WRF modelling. The maps are provided in GeoTIFF format in the same projections as the previous GeoTIFF files. The file naming convention follows the format: cityName_clc_lcz_WRF_version.tif (e.g., athens_clc_lcz_WRF_v1.tif).
• Version v1: Applicable to WRF versions prior to WRF version 4.4.2, with LCZs numbered from 31 to 41
• Version v2: Applicable to WRF version 4.4.2. and later versions, with LCZs numbered from 51 to 61.
(b) CLC_LCZ_WRF: This subdirectory includes the same LU/LC data as CLC_LCZ_WRF_tif, converted into binary format for compatibility with the WPS (WRF Pre-processing System) system and transformed into geographical coordinates. It is divided into further subdirectories named according to the format cityName_clc_lcz_WRF_version (e.g., athens_clc_lcz_WRF_v1) containing the binary files. The versioning of WRF follows the same logic as described above.
(c) Urban_Parameters_WRF: This subdirectory contains city-specific surface and urban canopy properties (e.g., width of streets, building heights) for each LCZ class, stored in WRF compliant look-up tables (URBPARM_LCZ.TBL). The file naming convention for these files is: cityName_URBPARM_LCZ.TBL (e.g., athens_URBPARM_LCZ.TBL).

Greece is one of the countries most affected by the current financial crisis. Since 2010, when the Greek government and IMF/EU/ECB agreed on the largest loan ever received by a single country, Greece has seen sweeping transformations in the character of its polity and state functions. The Greek version of the crisis has produced a rupture in the modus operandi of the state in question and in its relationship with its citizenry. The main axis of this rupture is the systemic challenge and reconfiguration of the category 'public' - which of course includes public spaces. This research focuses on the newly emerging public socialities in reference to public urban spaces. The idea of emphasizing spontaneous and unspontaneous socio-spatial practices, public urban materialities and spatialities in the capital city of Greece appears as an ideal way in which to study the wide variety of the social consequences of the financial crisis.

The annual number of passengers of the Athens' three-lined subway system remained almost stable between 2015 to 2019. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the ridership of the metro network dropped by ** percent, compared to 2019 levels. Athens is the capital and largest city in Greece.

The annual number of passengers of the Athens streetcar network reported an overall decline between 2015 and 2019. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the ridership of the Athens tram lines dropped by ** percent and stood at approximately *********** passengers. Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece.

The number of inbound visits in Greece grew significantly in 2024 over the previous year, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. In 2024, the Attica region, which includes the city of Athens, recorded the most inbound visits, at roughly *** million. Southern Aegean, Central Macedonia, and Crete followed in the ranking that year. What are the leading inbound travel markets in Greece? In 2024, Germany was the leading inbound tourist market in Greece, with over **** million arrivals in the country. The United Kingdom reported the second-highest figure that year, with approximately *** million arrivals. Overall, the total number of international travelers in Greece peaked at over ** million in 2024. How many Greek tourists travel abroad? The number of outbound travelers from Greece grew by ***** percent in 2024 over the previous year, totaling almost *** million. Despite the annual increase, the volume of outbound travelers remained below pre-pandemic levels.