Mirko Gregor I Luxembourg I 17.10.2016 Urban sustainability: A typology to support the analysis of similarities and diversity of European cities Mirko Gregor I Luxembourg I 17.10.2016

What were the starting questions? What are the main environmental characteristics of European cities? Are they able to meet upcoming challenges? Are they sustainable? Do they ensure quality of life of cities’ residents?  Will we be able to answer those questions?

Scope and objective of the report comprehensive overview of European cities by drawing a simplified image whilst considering their variety and the complexity of urban system in an integrative way, the analysis combines environmental and socio-economic aspects Key words: urban sustainability and quality of life

City typology(/ies) The typology is based on a number of parameters from various domains (e.g. urban form, land use, climate, water, socio-economics)  report „backbone“ Analysis is supported by thematic typologies on air quality, noise, urban green infrastructure and urban sprawl

The typology: the „backbone“ of the report Parameters Static and dynamic parameters from 9 domains List of parameters: For 385 cities From various sources Gap filling Issues with the Urban Audit data (esp. population)

The typology: the „backbone“ of the report Processing steps/method Collection of data, gap filling, QC Z-score normalisation of data Identification of optimal number of clusters: combination of indices and expert judgment K-means clustering: First level clustering  6 main clusters Second level sub-clustering  3 sub-clusters for each big first-level cluster

The typology: the „backbone“ of the report

1 2 3 4 5 6 The report: „from data to story“ Six Clusters and sub-clusters with 385 cities 98 74 121 14 77 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

Urban Audit database: very important, but … Indispensable data source for urban assessments on a European level! Data completeness, quality and reliability important Consistency over time and space required

Some examples …

Some examples …

Urban Audit database: our view on how to ensure the required quality? National quality control across the time series before delivery  conceivable given that data collection and provision is voluntary? Systematic quality control of incoming data by Eurostat To recap: Urban Audit data are very important, but their quality is the basis for trust in the data and their eventual use!

Thank you for your attention! Mirko Gregor space4environment Sàrl Niederanven, Luxembourg gregor@space4environment.com