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Urban Land Use: lessons from the Urban Atlas

Lewis DijkstraDeputy Head of the Analysis Unit

European Commission – DG Regional Policy

Lewis.Dijkstra@ec.europa.eu

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Overview• New grid based definitions

– Urban-rural regional typology: Urban clusters– Degree of urbanisation– Cities and hinterland: High-density clusters

and commuting zones• Measuring urban land use

– CORINE– Soil sealing– Urban Atlas

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A new urban-rural regional typology• Classifying EU NUTS3 regions• A variant of the OECD methodology• Aiming to provide a consistent basis for describing

urban, intermediate and rural regions in various Commission reports and publications

• Developed by:– DG Agriculture and Rural Development– DG Regional Policy– Eurostat– DG Joint Research Centre

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Why a new typology?• Distortions using the OECD methodology at

NUTS3 level– Large variation in area of local

administrative units (LAU2)– Large variation in area of NUTS3 regions– Some city centres separated from

surroundings, at NUTS3 level

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The new typology: local level• Units: 1 km² grid cells• Population grid: registered population when

available, otherwise disaggregation grid (JRC)

• Identify population living in urban areas:– Selection of grid cells with density > 300

inh./km²– Only groups of grid cells, representing a

total population of > 5000 inhabitants– Contiguity is evaluated including diagonals

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What is degree of urbanisation?• Classification of all LAU2s into three

categories:– Thinly populated– Intermediate density– Densely populated

• It is used primarily in the Labour Force Survey (LFS), but also in other surveys such as Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) and IT

• It is based on LAU2 density and contiguity• In use for 20 years

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Why a revision?• Distortions due to the large variation in

area of local administrative units (LAU2)• Revised urban-rural typology is based on a

grid based definition of rural areas which is more reliable than OECD or LFS approach

• Harmonising spatial concepts– Rural (OECD) and thinly populated areas

(LFS)– Densely populated areas (LFS) and cities

(UA)

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Previously: 3 conflicting definitionsUrban-Rural

TypologyDegree of

urbanisation Urban Audit

Rural LAU2 ≠ Thinly populated

Intermediate density

Densely populated ≠ Cities

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definition based on population grid

Revised Degree of urbanisaton

Thinly populated Rural LAU2

Intermediate density

Densely populated Urban Audit Cities

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New Proposal: 3 Criteria 3 ClassesType of Area Criteria

Thinly populated > 50% population in rural grid cells

Intermediate density

<50% population in rural grid cells and

<50% population in high-density grid cells

Densely populated

> 50% population in high-density grid cells

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Definitions• Rural grid cells = cells outside urban clusters

• Urban clusters = contiguous (including diagonals) cells with a density of at least 300 inhab/km2 and a minimum of 5 000 inhabitants

• High-density clusters = contiguous (without diagonals and with gap filling) cells with a density of at least 1500 inhab/km2 and a minimum of 50 000 inhabitants

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Population grid• Units: 1 km² grid cells (future reference for

all population grids)• Registered population in NO, CH, HR, AT,

FI, SE, DK and NL • Elsewhere disaggregation grid v5 (JRC) • FR is creating a real 1 km2 population grid

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City and hinterland definition

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Why a new definition?• No harmonised European definition of a

city and its functional area existed• Use the same criteria as the degree of

urbanisation• Uses commuting analysis to define

commuting zone• Consider poly-centricity by checking for

connected centres

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City definition• A city consists of one or more

municipalities (local administrative unit level 2 LAU2).

• At least half of the city residents live in an urban centre (i.e. a cluster of high-density grid cells with the gaps filled)

• An urban centre has at least 50 000 inhabitants.

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City definition

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Hinterland definition• If 15% of employed persons living in one

city work in another city, these cities are combined into a single destination (polycentric)

• All municipalities with at least 15% of their employed residents working in a city are identified

• Municipalities surrounded by a single functional area are included and non-contiguous municipalities are dropped

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Hinterland definition

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Urban Land Use

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Goal and obstacles• Accurately measure urban land use,

especially at the urban fringe• CORINE is designed to mainly measure

agricultural uses, coarse resolution and does not identify low-density developed (i.e. below 50% of soil sealing)

• Soil sealing, high resolution and measures all levels of sealing, but no land use info

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The Urban Atlas• Designed to measure urban land use at high

resolution and at low levels of soil sealing• Providing harmonised land cover/land use

maps according to a common classification• Covering 305 major European

agglomerations, based on Urban Audit’s Larger Urban Zones

• Imagery reference year: 2006 (+/- 1 year)• Project duration: 2009-2011

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Main features• Thematic classes based on CORINE Land

Cover nomenclature• But more specific for built-up areas, and

less specific outside urban areas• Geometric resolution of 1:10,000• Minimum mapping unit of 0.25 ha in urban

areas, 1 ha in other areas

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CORINE Land Cover

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Urban Atlas

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SPOT / ALOS images

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Production• Mix of automatic classification and photo-

interpretation• Various data sources used, depending on

thematic classes

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Thematic classes• Residential areas: use of soil sealing layer

to distinguish between density classes

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Thematic classes• Non-residential urban areas• Detailed transport network layer (COTS)• Local maps as auxiliary source of

information

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Thematic classes• Other classes• Less thematic detail for agricultural,

natural and forest areas (and MMU 1 ha)

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Dissemination• Georeferenced layers are freely available• Data download:

http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/urban-atlas

• Map viewer: http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/map/UrbanAtlasbeta/

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Derived indicators• Can be exploited at the level of Urban

Audit units:– Larger Urban Zone (LUZ), kernel, city, sub-

city districts (SCD)• Land cover/use surface breakdown• Green urban areas per inhabitant• A sprawl index (ESPON project):

www.espon.eu

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The future of the Urban Atlas• Repeat Urban Atlas in order to create a detailed

dynamic view on urban land cover/use• Coherence with other data collection projects is

important– Census 2011– Urban Audit

• Consequences– Define imagery acquisition requirements (2011 +/- year)– Update methodology, including change detection, to be

determined– Ensure compatibility with revised Urban Audit following

new harmonised definition