The Urban Audit

1
The Urban Audit

• An Overview and
• First Results
• by Lewis Dijkstra
• the Urban Unit
• Directorate-General for Regional Policy
• European Commission

2
Goals of the Urban Audit

• Allow citizens and city leaders to compare their
  city with other cities in Europe
• Support the development of urban policy
• Facilitate the exchange of experience between
  cities
• Inform Member States and the EU of the quality of
  life in European Cities

3
Structure of the Presentation

• Urban Audit Overview
• 1. City Selection
• 2. Variables
• 3. Points in time
• First results 1. Neighbourhood level 2. City
  and LUZ level 3. Perception Survey

4
The Urban Audit Pilot Project 1997-2000

• The first round 58 large cities in the EU 15
  without London and Paris
• 500 variables on
• socio-economic aspects
• participation in civic life
• education and training
• environment
• culture and leisure
• Carried out by a consultancy

5
Urban Audit 2002-2005

• City selection
• Both large (gt250 000 inhabitants) cities and
  medium-sized (lt250 000 and gt50 000)
• cover 20 of the population
• geographical dispersion
• 258 cities in EU27

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123 Large cities 135 Medium-sized cities
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Example of City Selection in Norway
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The Urban Audit

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Variables per spatial level in 2001
10
Variables over time at the City level
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Nine Domains

• Demography age, gender and nationality,
  household
• Social Aspects housing, health and crime
• Economic aspects employment and income
• Civic Involvement elections and local
  administration
• Training and Education education levels
• Environment climate, air quality, water and
  waste
• Travel and Transport travel to work, accidents
• Information Society ICT use and ICT sector
• Culture and Recreation cultural activities and
  tourism sector

12
Neighbourhood Level Results
13
Neighbourhood Disparities
14
Unemployment in Berlin
15
Education in Budapest
16
Housing in Warsaw
17
Poverty in Amsterdam
18
Suburbanisation in Helsinki
19
Crime concentrations
20
City and Larger Urban Zone Results
21
Singles prefer Cities
22
The educated prefer (large) cities
23
Tertiary Education
24
Young Old Cities
25
Cities and the Lisbon Target
26
Cities and the Lisbon Target
27
Unemployed often concentrated in cities
28
Not in Suburbs in EU15
29
But in many suburbs outside EU15
30
Unemployed Urban Youth
31
Most foreigners live in large cities and capitals
UK data not available
32
Owners or Renters?
33
Owners or Renters?
34
Summer Smog still a problem
35
On a lighter note
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Top Tourist Cities
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The Perception Survey

• Perception data is an important complement to the
  "objective" data collected by the Urban Audit
  (safety ? small number of recorded crimes)
• How citizens feel is important to politicians
• Show the differences in citizen opinions in
  different cities

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31 Cities in the EU 15

• Bruxelles/ Brussel
• Antwerpen
• Liège
• København
• Berlin
• München
• Leipzig
• Dortmund
• Athina
• Irakleio

• Amsterdam
• Rotterdam
• Wien
• Lisboa
• Braga
• Helsinki
• Stockholm
• London
• Glasgow
• Manchester

• Madrid
• Barcelona
• Malaga
• Paris
• Marseille
• Rennes
• Dublin
• Roma
• Napoli
• Torino
• Luxembourg

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18 Cities in outside EU15 (2005)

• Sofia
• Burgas
• Lefkosia
• Praha
• Ostrava
• Tallinn
• Budapest
• Miskolc
• Vilnius

• Riga
• Valletta
• Warszawa
• Gdansk
• Opole
• Bucuresti
• Cluj-Napoca
• Ljubljana
• Bratislava

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Perceptions of Safety
41
Employment Opportunities
42
Housing Costs
43
Public Transport
44
Air Pollution
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Conclusions

• The Urban Audit
• enables for the Europe-wide city comparisons
• allows better targeting of urban policy
• facilitates the exchange of experience
• will be continued and improved!

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Good News