Adding Value to the Urban Audit

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Adding Value to the Urban Audit

• Urban Audit City Meeting,
• 14th March 2006

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Contents

• Aims, Approach and Results to be Expected
• Some results from Internet survey
• 3. Examples of Maps

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Aims of the project

• Describe the current state of European cities and
  the changes over time including the position of
  cities within their countries through country
  chapters
• To create a clear set of city typologies
  helping to organise the cities in different
  groups facilitating the exchange of experience
• To demonstrate the use of the urban audit
  helping to provide a guide to urgan poliy based
  on the relative positioning of a city
• Assess the strengths and weakensses of the Urban
  Audit

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Key Approach Creating Value
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Relation between aims, tasks and deliverables
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State of European Cities Report A. Typology
Trends

• Aim
• Main deliverable that will set the bar for the
  future
• Balanced trend report with proper attention to
  different thematic categories
• Attention to subcity level in social sections
• Easy-to-understand and appealing classifications/
  typologies
• Methodology should not distract us from focusing
  on the information

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State of European Cities Report A. Typology
Trends

• Deliverables
• Main State of Cities Report (approx. 150 pages)
  including an Executive Summary
• Approach
• Identify 20 key indicators (based on
  availability, user interest and EU interest)
• Focus on city level use other levels for
  comparison (disparities)
• Gross list of typologies to be tested by team and
  external experts

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State of European Cities Report B. Country
Chapters

• Aim
• Description of the national urban hierarchy,
  trends
• Overview of main themes, focusing on the question
  how much power do cities have? Competence of
  city authorities and their limitations who
  decides what putting cities on a scale, focus
  on competitiveness areas
• Notes regarding the limitation of the Urban Audit

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State of European Cities Report B. Country
Chapters

• Deliverables
• 2.5 pages per country (presented in Annex to
  report)
• Approach
• Introductory overview of decentralisation trends
• Focus on 6 important tasks at city level
• Use of detailed template with specific questions
  (use of scale 1-5)
• Using specific guidelines/manual/instructions
  (including an explanation of terms used)
• Pilots in 3 countries (North, Central, East)

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2. Case Studies

• Aim
• Comparing cities as a value added
• Collaboration with city authorities
• Useful example/template what can you do with the
  Urban Audit?
• Short and concise deliverables (including some
  process aspects)
• Focus on transferable key issues only (especially
  within the typology - no need to be
  comprehensive)
• 4-6 accessible case studies (balanced package in
  terms of size, typology and geographic position
  within EU)
• Linking with Regional Programming/Structural
  Funds would be especially interesting

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2. Case Studies

• Deliverables
• 4 to 5 5-page case studies
• Approach
• Profiles with existing UA data
• Create a long-list of possible cities with whom
  we have contacts
• Selection criteria include geographic coverage,
  size, contacts, Internet Questionnaire response,
  fit with typologies
• Dependent on cooperation of local actors and
  geographical spread
• Focus on local policy issues and challenges that
  matter to this type of cities

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3. Future Direction for the UA

• Expectation
• Write down experiences with the usage (including
  a judgment about LUZ)
• Comment on the new list of variables (for 2009)
  e.g. strange outlyers
• Deliverables
• Note on Strengths/Weaknesses
• Approach
• Take note of comments throughout the project

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Time planning
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Expert Panel

• NW Europe
• Prof. M. Parkinson
• Prof. J. Lambooy
• C E. Europe
• Prof. G. Gorzelak
• S. Europe
• M. Pezzini (OECD)
• -gt Additional input (User perspective) Greg
  Clark (Cities and Regions)

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Some results from the Internet Questionnaire
Approach

• Identification of correct avant garde target
  groups availability of email addresses (UA
  contact points, URBACT, Eurocities, EUKN, Urban
  II Networks, Metrex)
• Questionnaire focusing on have you used the UA?
  How, and for what purpose?
• Sent out by Commission
• 236 responses of which 34 from city
  administrations (150-175 fully usable)
• Respondents tend to come more from Netherlands,
  Germany, Spain, UK, Italy, Belgium

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Some results from the Internet Questionnaire

• Urban Audit is actively used for preparing policy
  documents (45), briefing politicians (30),
  academic research (23) and government research
  (21)
• UA is used above all for EU trends development
  (48), ranking (26), benchmarking (31)
• Key interest in identifying similar cities (27)
  and constructing city typologies (23)
• UA provides data that were not accessible before
  in 72 of cases
• Key areas for comparison 1) Economic performance
  2) Social cohesion 3) Population growth

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Case StudiesA. Internet Questionnaire
Important subjects
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For more information, comments or interest in
joining our case study work

• Jan Maarten de Vet
• Tel. [phone]
• Janmaarten_devet_at_ecotec.com