1. Hugo Poelman DG REGIO-GIS hugo.poelman@cec.eu.int
GIS as a policy support tool: The case of crossborder cooperation
Hugo Poelman
DG REGIO-GIS

2. Structural Funds interventions 2007-2013
17/03/2006
Context
Structural Funds interventions
“Mainstreaming” of INTERREG III
Cooperation Objective
crossborder cooperation
transnational cooperation

3. Analysis of border regions
17/03/2006
Analysis of border regions
Study and analysis underpinning policy conception
Contribution to characterisation of borders
Inspired by ESPON methodology
Data
regional socio-economic data
border length
transport network data
contiguity of regions

4. 17/03/2006
Border disparities
Disparities between (groups of) regions at both sides of a specific border
aggregating regional values at both sides of the border separately
quotient of both aggregated values
GDP/head and unemployment rate (NUTS-3 level data whenever available)
mapped as characteristic of border lines

5. 17/03/2006
Border disparities

6. Border characteristics
17/03/2006
Border characteristics
“Permeability” of borders in terms of availability of crossborder transport links (roads, motorways, railways)
border length / number of crossing points
problem of non-compatible layers: networks versus boundary data
detecting “nationality” of the nearest nodes of each crossborder road

7. 17/03/2006
Border crossings

8. 17/03/2006
Border crossings

9. 17/03/2006
Border crossings

10. Crossborder cooperation
17/03/2006
Crossborder cooperation
(draft) list of NUTS-3 regions for crossborder cooperation
terrestrial border regions
continuity of cooperation (INTERREG IIIA)
maritime border areas
coastal regions
max. 150 km away from opposite shore
need for identification of maritime « neighbours »

11. Maritime border regions
17/03/2006
Maritime border regions
identify coastline for each NUTS-3 region
create 75 km buffer for each NUTS-3 coast

12. Maritime border regions
17/03/2006
Maritime border regions
check that maximum distances between coastal regions are maritime ones

13. Maritime border regions
17/03/2006
Maritime border regions
control for regions along estuaries and along the same coast

14. analysis of border disparities and border crossings
17/03/2006
Conclusions
analysis of border disparities and border crossings
helpful tool
dependent on quality and availability of (regional) data
selection of (maritime) border regions
spatial analysis produced useful draft list
additional control had to be performed, to take into account specific cases