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 Brandmuller Eurostat 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

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

Low Data availability High Low Policy relevance High Data to be collected in the Urban Audit Data should not be collected Data 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 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 to low 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 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 Brandmuller Eurostat Unit D2