Urban settlements in Norway

1
Urban settlements in Norway

• A comparison with delimitations using strict 200
  m criteria
• Erik Engelien
• Division for Environmental statistics

2
Background

• Definition of urban settlement 1960 in Norway
  along with national results
• Nordic definition coined 1960, but never used in
  Norway
• The Norwegian definition originally incorporated
  functional criteria
• Automatic method implemented in the late 1990s
• Easy to test a 200 m criteria by automatic
  methodology

3
Definition Norway

• En hussamling skal registreres som et tettsted
  dersom det bor minst 200 personer der (ca. 60-70
  boliger).
• Avstanden mellom husene skal normalt ikke
  overstige 50 meter. Det er tillatt med et
  skjønnsmessig avvik utover 50 meter mellom husene
  i områder som ikke skal eller kan bebygges. Dette
  kan f.eks være parker, idrettsanlegg,
  industriområder eller naturlige hindringer som
  elver eller dyrkbare områder. Husklynger som
  naturlig hører med til tettstedet taes med inntil
  en avstand på 400 meter fra tettstedskjernen.
• Tettsteder er geografiske områder som har en
  dynamisk avgrensing, og antall tettsteder og
  deres yttergrenser vil endre seg over tid
  avhengig av byggeaktivitet og befolkningsutvikling
  .

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Nordic definition

• Som tätbebyggt område räknas alla hussamlingar
  med minst 200 invånare, såvida avståndet mellan
  husen normalt icke överstiger 200 meter.
  Avståndet kan dock tillåtas överstiga 200 meter
  när det gäller hussamlingar inom en större orts
  influensområde. Å andra sidan bör maximigränsen
  mellan husen sättas lägre än 200 meter, der
  bebyggelsens karaktär så påkallar, nämligen då i
  små tätorter ingen tydlig tätortskärna (centrum,
  city) framträder och i de fall, då gränsen mellan
  tätort og landsbygd är diffus, med andra ord då
  bebyggelsen i tätorten icke framstår som avsevärt
  tätare än inom övriga närliggande bebyggda
  områden
• Även om avståndet mellan husen överstiger 200
  meter, skal det inte betraktas som avbrott i
  bebyggelsen, när det mellan husen belägna
  området utnyttjas til allmännyttiga ändmål såsom
  vägar, parkeringsplatser, parker, idrottsplatser
  och kyrkogårdar detsamma gäller sådana obebyggda
  områden som lagerplatser, järnvägslinjer och
  kajer.

5
Data source and methodology

• Ground property- address- and building register
• Population register
• Register of sports facilities
• (Coastline from national digital map)

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Buffering
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reselecting gt 200 inhabitants
8
shrinking polygons to 25 m from buildings
9
Automatic delimitation

• does not allow for individual asessments.
  Choices regarding distance has to be made in
  advance.
• Data source does not include Storage area,
  railway lines and roads, quay, parking area and
  other developed areas
• Manual asessment in earlier delimitations led to
  maximum distances of more than 50 m in many cases
  
• This led to implementation of differensiated max
  distances based on type of building (50 200m)

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• Norway
• Buffer 25 100 m
• 200 inhabitants
• Pluss satellittes
• Generalized cutting across fjords up to 200 m
• 25 m from outermost buildings
• Clipped with coastline
• Internal not built up area gt 1 km2 taken out

• Norway 200
• Buffer 100 m
• 200 inhabitants
• 25 m from outermost buildings

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Results

• 1 493 urban settlements
• 3 500 km2
• 3,76 mill inhabitants in urban settlements
• or 82,5 percent of the inhabitants
• 1 074 inhabitants per km2
• Compared to SSBs urban settlements
• 561 more urban settlements
• 245 491 more inhabitants in urban settlements (7
  percent increase)
• 1 277 km2 more urban area (57 percent increase)

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comparison within size-groups
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A 200 m criteria with automatic methodology can
not be used in Norway because

• Urban settlements includes too much open land
  and agriculture
• Places which is not regarded as urban
  settlements will be included in the statistics

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This is a consequense of

• Different settlement and building pattern in
  Norway compared to other Nordic countries
• But also of the automatic methodology
• if asessment was possible the results would not
  differ that much from a 200 m criterion?
• The existing, operationalized method of
  delimitation differentiate 50 200 m
• Given the exceptions to the general distance
  criteria (in the Nordic definition), what is an
  urban settlement?

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Population density compared to other Nordic
countries