Urbanisation and its impact on Quality of Place in Europe

Judith Borsboom, Stefan Berghuis, Jos Diederiks, Rob Folkert, Henk Ottens

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 2

The EURBANIS Project

• Gain more insight into European spatial processes and their impact on

environment, ecology and Quality of Life/Place

Urbanity UrbanisationBuilt-up area Pop. density Built-up area Pop. density

+ + + / - + / - + ++ + + + + + 0 -+ / - + / - + /- + + +

+ + + + + + + + ++ / - + / - + / - + / -

0 + + + + / - - - -0 + / - + / - 0

+ / - - - 0 - -

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 6

Case Study Cities

Cluster 1 Stagnating: ReimsCluster 2 Compact: AarhusCluster 3 Leisure: SüdburgenlandCluster 4 Shrinking: VilniusCluster 5 Sprawling: ErfurtCluster 6 Average: Rotterdam, BolognaCluster 7 Booming: Madrid

Link to Quality of Life/Quality of Place on base ofUrban Audit data on a local level: economic, social,environmental, housing, land use variables

• archetypical characteristics of urbanisation cluster• presence in Urban Audit database • representation of European regions

Economic Social Environment

•Income•Employment

•Demographics•Education•Health and -care•Crime•Culture

•Air pollution•Noise•Green spaces•Land-use•Transport•Housing

Environmentalperspective• Characteristics of environment

Sustainability•Elsewhere and later perspective

Human perspective•Satisfaction with environment

•Here and now

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 8

Case study Erfurt• Urban land use:

– high increase built-up area on farmland due to economic growth and transition and residential preferences

• Urban densities: – large decrease because of single-familiy housing and

depopulation/migration

• Urban green: – older inner city districts low rates of green areas, new residential

development in lower densities with more urban green

• Air quality:– new road infrastructure, decrease of noise and air pollution in inner

city,

• Social Cohesion: – more polarisation due to suburbanisation, accumulation of problems in

some districts, decrease of service level due to depopulation

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 9

Lessons Learned• Comparable problems observed (such as transport, air

pollution, segregation, lack of urban green)

• Nevertheless the drivers behind and the manifestation of urbanisation may diverge between different European regions: this heterogeneity only revealed with a more qualitative, in depth approach with case studies

• Approach of Shafer and Pacione most practical to work out Liveability, Quality of Life, Quality of Place

• Perception of Quality of Life/Place is important next to empirical observations

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 10

Preliminary conclusions

• Lack of harmonised data and time series major obstacle for analysis of changes and bench-marking purposes: should be completed and validated

• A clear practical framework to assess urbanisation is still needed for balanced and sustainable urban development

• Liveable cities project might provide clues for such a framework