Research

WP9 - Developing indicators for urban impact assessment
Theme
Sub-Theme
Basic Indicators
Unit

Environment

Land Use

Proportion of LU classes, Urban Forms, …

km², %

Green Urban Areas

Proportion of GUA, Spatial distribution to GUA, …

km², %

Air Quality & Noise

Areas exposed to air pollution/noise sources (road, industry,..), Number of days of limits' exceedance

km², N

Water

Consumption per capita

/y

Economy
Employment

Employment/Unemployment rate and structure
Proportion of Employment per sector Number of Companies per sector, Location of Companies

N

N
N

Income

Average household income, …

€/y

Transport
Infrastructure

Density of transport infrastructure by typology (road, rail, public transport,…)
Road vehicle density, passenger car density

km/km²

N

Travel Patterns
Proportion of journeys to work by typology, Number of registered cars per pop., Average time of journey to work, % of population travelling over 20 km to work, Accessibility of services, in/outgoing commuters
N, %
Climate & Geography
Weather Extremes
Temperature and precipitation extremes (quantity and duration)
C,mm, N-days
Natural Risks
Exposure maps to natural hazards
km², %
Social Aspects
Demography
Population, Pop. Structure, Pop. Density, Pop. Dynamics
N
Housing

Number of dwellings, apartments, houses..

N
Health

Number of hospital beds per 1000 residents

N

Basic Indicators

Theme
Sub-Theme
Composite Indicators
Environment
Land Use

Land use transformations, Urban Sprawl.
Changes in land condition by type and geographic location, in the condition, suitability and nature of the land resource

Green Urban Areas

Accessibility to GUA: % of citizens within less than 500 m distance from GUA.
Surface of green space per inhabitant

Air Quality & Noise
Population exposed to air pollution/noise sources (road, industry,..)

Economy

Employment
Spatial distribution of employment per economic sector
Income

Urban zones characterisation

Transport
Infrastructure

Urban zones characterisation

Travel Patterns

Climate & Geography
Natural Risks
Economic (direct damage) and population exposure (risk) to natural hazards
Social Aspects
Demography
Urban zones characterisation
Housing
Urban zones characterisation
Health
Urban zones characterisation

Composite Indicators

What?

Monitoring the impact of urbanization on quality of life and environment


Why?

While emphasis in the assessment and the selection/development of metrics in WP4 and WP6 is strongly on their capacity to discern characteristics of urban form, WP9 focuses on indicators emphasizing the potential effects of urban development and organization on the environment and the quality of life of inhabitants of cities and of rural areas affected by urbanization.


How?

The first phase of work in WP9 has been dedicated to identify a set of indicators which could provide a better understanding of complex territorial problems linked to urbanisation.

The indicators were selected based on the following criteria:
- Focus given on environmental issues, specifically on Urban Sprawl, including transport and, at a limited extent, housing;
- Health is dealt with only in relation to exposure to pollutants;
- Bias towards “land-use/territorially related” indicators, linked to data availability and spatially distributed (i.e. geo-referenced) in such a way to be suitable for computation from model's output.

Since it was not the scope of the WP to define new indicators, it has been made reference to initiatives from EUROSTAT (Urban Audit), the European Environment Agency and from international organisations (OECD, UNCSD).


Results

The selected indicators are defined according to three categories:

1. Basic indicators: taken at a fixed date and represent typically proportions of land use categories and proportions of road network cutting the various land uses;

2. Dynamic indicators: refer to typology of change (historical trend of transformations);

3. Composite indicators: are produced combining territorial parameters with socio-economic and environmental data (land use class vs. statistical data).

























 

 

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Last modification date = 5-05-2009