The thorough revision of the Urban Audit project
The thorough revision of the Urban Audit project Berthold Feldmann Eurostat berthold. feldmann@ec. europa. eu
Structure of the talk Why a fundamental reform? Major elements of the reform Time table 2/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Chapter 1 Why do we need a thorough revision of the Urban Audit?
Dimensions of the Urban Audit § More than 300 variables collected from Member States Ø Cover many demographic, economic and social aspects in European cities § Data collections Ø Exhaustive collection every three years – 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 Ø Annual data collection of 38 variables since 2010 § Three spatial units Ø 369 core cities Ø larger urban zones (=including the city hinterland) Ø sub-city information (reduced dataset) 4/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Current situation of Urban Audit u The Urban Audit project was started more than 10 years ago as a pilot project (58 cities) u It has grown to an ambitious voluntary data collection in order to give a comprehensive statistical picture of urban life in more than 350 cities with over 300 indicators u The Urban Audit data has been intensively used in EU Policy context and analyses u Urban Audit has been very useful in defining harmonised concepts for core cities, larger urban zones and sub-city districts u Overall response rate: only 60% 5/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Major challenges in the Urban Audit u Data delivery delays Ü As a consequence to these delays of data inflow, the quality control, which needs a critical mass of data, is very delayed u Comparability of the data is questioned by some Ü This reduces the usability of the data for political analysis u Missing data is a problem for all countries Ü Different gaps in different countries due to diverging social and statistical history Ü Estimations required – some countries estimate a lot, others don‘t estimate at all 6/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Part of estimation in data delivery 7/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Where the Urban Audit data comes from u Inevitably a complex data collection system 8/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Several Stakeholder meetings in 2010/11 u Peer Review summer 2010 Ü Conclusion: Actions are needed to raise awareness about the data collection and to reduce the amount of missing data u Working Party meeting September 2010 Ü Conclusion: there a still several unresolved challenges related to the Urban Audit data collection u High level stakeholder meeting December 2010 Ü Conclusion: The Urban Audit should be continued. DG REGIO is ready to continue providing substantial financial support u Think tank meeting March 2011 Ü Conclusion: The proposed thorough revision of the Urban Audit found unanimous support 9/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Chapter 2 Ten proposed actions of the Urban Audit revision
1. Create a consistent list of cities u The current list of cities is over-complex: standard list, additional list for some countries, large city Audit etc. u New target: include all European cities with more than 50 000 inhabitants in the Urban Audit u Advantage: Thanks to the revision of the “degree of urbanisation”, LF and EU-SILC will provide country level values for all cities Ü These figures can be used in combination with other information, primarily administrative data, to improve the quality of the city specific estimates 11/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
2. Create consistent spatial definitions of cities u Eurostat and DG REGIO are currently conducting a comprehensive analysis of all European core cities and Larger Urban Zones (LUZ), based on the newly developed urban-intermediate-rural typology u This approach, based on objective criteria, will significantly increase the comparability of Urban Audit statistics u As a result, there will be a list of European core cities (urban centres) and LUZ (agglomerations) following a harmonised methodology 12/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
3. Create a focused list of indicators 13/22 u Currently we collect 40 variables annually and 330 variables every three years u In order to ease the burden on data suppliers, we will collect in future 85 variables annually and 175 variables every five years u Policy relevance and response rate were the guiding principles for deleting or keeping variables Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
4. Revise the frequency of data collections u There is a trade-off between response burden and timeliness of data u Eurostat proposes to increase the scope of the annual data collection (=timely data) u Decrease the frequency of the exhaustive data collection to every five years u With a significantly shorter list than at the current stage u These measures will considerably reduce the burden on NSIs 14/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
5. Reach an overall 80% response rate u Reduce the number of required variables by deleting those with a poor response rate u Increase the number of centrally collected variables, i. e. data put together by Eurostat from existing Europe wide source (EEA, Urban Atlas of DG REGIO etc. ) u Foster estimations of the data suppliers Ü Grants for estimating missing data Ü Create a Board of Urban Audit Advisers that gives advice on estimation techniques u Collect at least data for all urban areas in each country (using the new “degree of urbanisation”) 15/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
7. Increase direct cooperation with cities u Fine tuning of Eurostat’s validation tools u Encourage validation by the data suppliers 6. Improve the data validation process u After each collection round, the data set for each city should be sent to the individual cities u Cities will be asked to confirm or improve the data 16/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
8. Improve communication with users u Restructure the public Eurostat database (Eurobase), taking more into account the user perspective and the possibilities offered by the data explorer u Intensify the dialogue with the cities involved 17/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
9. Increase awareness of urban statistics u A joint Eurostat / DG REGIO publication on the "State of European Cities" should be launched starting 2012 u This publication should have descriptive and analytical elements u It should have an annual frequency 18/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
10. Exploit synergies with other statistical data collections u Harmonised definitions shall be used as much as possible to support the analysis of functional regions, metropolitan regions, coastal regions, etc. u Using the new “degree of urbanisation” concept, statistics can be produced for all urban areas in a country Ü These figures can then be used as benchmarks for city specific estimations 19/22 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Chapter 3 Next steps and time table
Next steps in the Urban Audit revision 21/22 u DM discussion May 2011 u Meeting of all national Urban Audit coordinators June 2011 u Present strategy at ESS-Com. Oct 2011 u Implementation Jan 2012 Urban Facts' Centenary Conference
Thank you for your attention! Any Questions ?
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