1. Italian National Institute of Statistics Major developments in 2010
Working party
“REGIONAL AND URBAN STATISTICS”
Luxembourg, September 2010
Italian National Institute of Statistics
Major developments in 2010 1

2. Summary NEW PRODUCTS Census mapping
GISTAT: the Istat Geographic Information System
I.STAT
UPDATES
Urban Audit 2010
Statistical Atlas of Italian Municipalities
“Noi Italia”
Regional indicators for policy evaluation
OTHERS ACTIVITIES
Experimental project on land cover/land use
Conference with Italian Regional Science Association
Major developments in 2010 2

3. Census mapping
NEW PRODUCTS
Over the past two years, Istat has been involved in the updating and improvement of the 2001 Census enumeration areas
3 steps:
Use of aerial photos for the update of 2001 census area
Check of Istat proposal by Municipalities
Loading of the results on GISTAT and dissemination through a restricted access web site
This work is to be concluded in the coming months. 3

4. GISTAT: the Istat Geographic Information System
NEW PRODUCTS
GISTAT, focused on the preparation of 2011 CENSUS, is a wide and robust Spatial Database implemented inside Oracle
It stores a big amount of geodata including census mapping cartography and indicators and other vector data
It is accessed over the Istat Intranet by multiple clients using modern GIS architecture
The updating clients access it in a full client/server environment, using powerful desktop GIS tools
Querying clients access it through a prototype of Flex application, based on a SOA WebGIS 4

5. I.stat
NEW PRODUCTS
I.Stat is the corporate data warehouse of the Institute, destined to become the direct access to data produced by Istat.
Since JULY 2010 a beta version of the system is presented on the internet : content loading is nearing completion and some features are under construction.
Constantly updated, I.Stat has been designed to offer a complete and homogeneous wealth of information, unique for the Italian official statistics.
Statistics are organized by theme and presented in aggregate form in multidimensional tables, with the ability to create custom tables and graphs, also by territory. A wide range of standard metadata facilitates the retrieval and understanding of statistics by users. 5

6. “Visualize, eXplore, know”
I.Stat: Data visualization
“Visualize, eXplore, know”
TERRITORY
YEARS
INDICATORS

7. Urban Audit 2010 The exhaustive UA 2010 is in progress:
UPDATE
The annual UA is completed:
the 1st task (identification of variables) was sent on
the 2nd task (compilation of available variables) for the annual Urban Audit were sent on The variables cover 60% of the total (23/38).
The exhaustive UA 2010 is in progress:
the available variables of the third task (Compilation variables for the Exhaustive Urban Audit) were sent on and on
the variables identified concern all territorial levels requested and cover 50% of the total (165/320)
remaining data definite as “A” on the variables list will be sent as soon as possible (next month).
Remarks
Increasing participation of Municipalities in providing data
Growing interest in the scientific community for the use of UA data 7

8. Statistical Atlas of Municipalities
UPDATE
"Atlante statistico dei comuni" (Statistical Atlas of Municipalities) is an information system with a database of municipal data taken from surveys, census and administrative sources that allow the user to query and process data by a wide set of territorial level like regions, provinces, municipalities, etc. Moreover, the user can customize territorial area by distance or neighborhood contiguity.
In 2010 edition, new functionalities have been developed and the database has been enriched and updated enabling better handling of territorial data, such as a module that permits the storage of the user’s data in a personal archive. The cartographic part has also been improved and enlarged and new territorial administrative divisions (employment centers, areas for rural development, courts, etcetera) and new variables have been inserted. 8

9. NOI ITALIA
UPDATE
The 2010 edition of “NOI ITALIA”, in a context of increasing integration, offers an overview on different aspects of economic, social, demographic and environmental conditions of Italy, its place in the European context and regional differences (6 areas of interest and 112 tabs)
Work in progress: in addition to the print version, the 2011 version (forthcoming on next January), through the use of Istat.Explorer, will allow the users to make a dynamic visualization of figures and graphs on the web. 9

10. Regional indicators for policy evaluation
UPDATE
The regional database “Indicatori regionali per le politiche di sviluppo” is a set of 160 indicators updated monthly since 2001
The db, born to support the measurement of Structural Funds policy actions in Italian regions, is now commonly used by a large set of users (students, local stakeholders, local policy makers, ...)
Currently, Istat is about to sign a new agreement with Department for Development and Cohesion Policies for Structural Funds policies evaluation. 10

11. Experimental project on:
Land cover/Land use
OTHERS ACTIVITIES
Experimental project on:
management and fusion between land parcel use databases (for hinterland areas) and cartographic datasets (2010 census mapping) 11

12. ISTAT – AISRe Conference
OTHERS ACTIVITIES
Last June, Istat organized the first Conference with Regional Science Association in order to better identify the needs of users of regional and urban statistics and to adapt statistical production to the demand of specialized users (academic regional scientists, policy makers, evaluators, etc.). 12