25-Sept-08

Defining indicators for European cities: bridging the gap between policy demand and statistical information supply

“International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics“

Beijing Teodora BrandmullerEurostat Unit D2

What is the Urban Audit?

The Urban Audit is a joint effort by the European Commission and the European Statistical System to provide reliable and comparative statistical information on selected urban areas

Dimensions of the dataset:

– Spatial dimension– Indicators dimension

– Time dimension

Spatial dimension

The demand

To cover all cities in Europe To delineate cities according to the functional

boundaries (irrespective of administrative units) To give information on the relation between the

city and its hinterland To give information on inner city disparities

Cities participating in the Urban Audit

321 cities in EU27

Cities in HR, TR, NO and CH

Hamburg, Germany

Hamburg

Urban Morphological Zone

Hamburg

Core city

Hamburg

Sub-city districts

Unemployment

Proportion of households living in social housing

Number of recorded crime per inhabitant

Hamburg

Larger Urban Zone

Data availability at sub city district level

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

SK NO PT SE CH PL LU FI NL DE SI IT DK EE FR RO HU CY BG IE UK GR LT LV TR CZ ES BE AT MT

2001

2004

The demand

To cover all cities in Europe

To delineate cities according to the functional boundaries (irrespective of administrative units)

To give information on the relation between the city and its hinterland

To give information on inner city disparities

The supply

The Urban Audit is a good sample

Only administrative units have sufficient data – these boundaries are verified by the morphological zones

The LUZ is based on commuter flows, a good proxy.

Providing inner city information is important but in non census years it is extremely difficult

Indicators dimension

Review of indicators - principles

Change as little as possible – to maintain continuity in the data base

Add only a very limited number of variables Satisfy user needs, the policy demand Respect data supply – the Urban Audit remains to be a

secondary data collection

Review of indicators

Demand Review policy need Consult stakeholders Contributions received from:

– DG ENVIRONMENT– EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT

AGENCY (EEA)– DG HEALTH– DG ENTERPRISE– DG TRANSPORT– DG EMPLOYMENT– EUROSTAT TEAM FOR WASTE

STATISTICS – EUROSTAT TEAM FOR WATER

INDICATORS– EUROSTAT TEAM FOR CULTURE– EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF

ARCHITECTS (ACE)

Supply Review what is available Consult stakeholders Contributions received from:

– National Urban Audit Co-ordinators– EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT

AGENCY (EEA)– EUROSTAT GISCO TEAM

Lo

w

D

ata

av

aila

bili

ty

H

igh

Low Policy relevance High

Data to be collected

in the Urban AuditData should

not

be collectedData to be collected

with other methods

Evaluation matrix

Incidence rate of victimisation

Very low response rate

All municipal authority income variables

No comparable data is available

All local e-government variables

No longer relevant

Data not to be collected

New Indicators to be collected

Median population age Number of persons born abroad

(not only nationals), broken down by continent

Proportion of households with at least 3 children less than 17 years old

Number of unemployed person households with children

Suicide rate (by age groups) Number of general practitioners Number of specialist doctors The employment rates by gender

with/without children (0-17)

Number of enterprises that had a revenue increase last year (size class >250 employees)

Employment growth last year (size class 1-250 employees)

Employment growth last year (size class >250 employees)

Average size of school classes Percentage of population exposed to

concentrations in exceedance for fine particles PM2.5

Proportion of solid waste which is composted

Average length of commuting trips

Indicators NOT included due tolow data availability

Frequency of extreme weather conditions

Number of days of peak heat Maximum number of consecutive

days without rain People affected by health

problems due to extreme weather conditions

Emissions from domestic heating (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NOX)

Transport emissions (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NOX)

Proportion of solid waste produced by construction

Demolition waste; Industrial waste Proportion of solid waste which is composted Total surface area of the sites classified as

potentially contaminated sites Primary energy demand (toe) by fuel Final energy consumption (toe) by fuel Electricity demand per capita (kWh/capita) Total energy consumption in kWh/ y for

electricity, heating and cooling, hot water Primary/Final energy consumption by sector

(toe) Consumption of renewable energies by

source percent of total consumption)

Alternative methods to collect data on cities – The Urban Atlas

Reference year 2006 +- 1 year Goal cover all Urban Audit Larger Urban Zones Ideally, updating should be less expensive and could be

envisaged every 3 years Next update for reference year 2011

The Urban Atlas

Possible new indicators Land use in cities Urban sprawl Green space availability Accessibility …

25-Sept-08

Time dimension

Timeliness

Timeliness meets the highest international standards.

Periodicity takes into account user requirements as much as possible.

Timeliness of 2 years

Periodicity of 3 years

Data is 5-year-old

Increase periodicity

Non-Excessive Burden on Respondents

The reporting burden should be proportionate to the needs of the users and should not be excessive for respondents. The statistical authority monitors the response burden and sets targets for its reduction over time.

Timeliness

Increase periodicity

Annual data collection for a limited data set

Future plans in the time dimension

The Think Tank recommended an annual data collection– Starting in 2009

– Collecting data for the years 2004 to 2007

– For core city and LUZ

– A very limited number of variables (20 to 30)

The exhaustive Urban Audit will continue– Reduced frequency (every 4 to 5 years)

– Take place in census years

25-Sept-08

Thank you for your attention!

Teodora Brandmullerteodora.brandmueller@ec.europa.euEurostat Unit D2