Geography Harmonisation

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Geography Harmonisation

• Michelle Clift-MatthewsOffice for National
  Statistics

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Aims

• ONS Geography
• why is geography complicated?
• what is geography harmonisation?
• key areas of harmonisation
• NS Geography Group
• rural and urban definitions project
• NS Geography webpages

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ONS Geography

• primary role is to provide a geographic support
  service to the ONS
• range of geographic products and services
• has a remit to improve the use of geography in
  ONS, GSS and the wider community

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Why is geography complicated?

• UK geography is very complex and its always
  changing

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Why is geography complicated?

• a number of different geographies exist and their
  boundaries often overlap

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Why is geography complicated?

• every year there are numerous boundary changes
  particularly to electoral wards and health areas

2002
2001
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Why is geography complicated?

• and sometimes boundaries are subject to
  reorganisation

1996 to present
1974-1996.
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and area names keep changing...
Why is geography complicated?
Yorkshire and Humber
Yorkshire and the Humber
Yorkshire and The Humber
Yorkshire and Humberside
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Dept of Health 0270
English Heritage LOBH
DETR L5810
Forestry Commission BH
DfEE 318
DSS 050130
ONS 01BD
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Why is geography complicated?

• all of these issues can lead to errors in
  statistics or disclosure problems eg through...
• wrong area names or codes being applied
• overlapping geographies
• boundary changes

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What is geography harmonisation?

• promotes a consistent or standard approach to how
  we and others use geography
• aims to minimise the problems caused by the UKs
  complicated and ever changing geography

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Areas of geography harmonisation

• standard names and codes (SNAC) database
• standard area measurements (SAM)
• urban and rural definitions
• formalising the flow of UK area data
• communication of updates/changes, bulletin
  service
• best practice/standards published on the NS
  website

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Areas of geography harmonisation

• geography in protocols
• liaison with other government departments, eg
  IGGI, AGI and Office of the E-envoy, and
• with international organisations, eg Eurostat and
  UNECE

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NS Geography Group

• managed by ONS Geography
• endorses harmonisation work programme
• consists of a range of representatives from
  across government
• co-ordinates geographic issues and leads on the
  development and use of geography in NS
• promotes a joined-up approach, best practice and
  geography standards
• involved in a national GI strategy

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• an example of a geography harmonisation
  initiative is the rural and urban definitions
  project

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The new rural and urban definitions for England
and Wales

• Michelle Clift-MatthewsOffice for National
  Statistics
• Justin MartinThe Countryside Agency

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The ODPM Review of Urban and Rural Definitions in
2001

• identified several different urban and rural
  definitions in use
• ODPM Urban Areas definition (based on landuse)
• rural was defined in two different ways
• as not urban via the Urban Areas (land use)
  definition
• and as a socio-economic classification of
  administrative areas eg
• the Countryside Agency (Tarling) definition and
  the ONS classification of local and health
  authorities

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The Review identified

• a clear need for a more consistent approach
• the definitions in use are not satisfactory as a
  long-term solution
• there is a need for standard definitions to
  promote joined-up geography
• a single definition of both urban and rural is
  required

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The Review identified

• more specifically a definition that
• moves away from out-dated and irrelevant
  socio-economic criteria
• identifies rural settlements and makes
  distinctions between different types of rural
  areas
• can be applied throughout the administrative
  hierarchy

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Research to create a new rural/urban definition
began in September 2002
The Project is being co-sponsored by The
Countryside Agency Department of the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister Office for National Statistics The Welsh
Assembly Government
The Consultants SERRL, Birkbeck College Town and
Regional Planning, Sheffield University School of
Computing, University of Glamorgan Geowise,
Edinburgh
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The new definition seeks to

• extend the logic of the Urban Areas (land use)
  definition to all areas
• create a model of settlement structure (i.e.
  form, pattern and hierarchy) across all England
  and Wales
• incorporate settlement function and geographic
  context in the definition for all settlements,
• link with the urban areas definition used in
  the 2001 Census at the 10,000 population cut-off
  point, and
• classify and aggregate administrative and
  statistical areas

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Creating an underlying settlement structure

• that takes account of where the urban areas are
• and
• identifies the nature of the other areas

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An address based system i.e Royal Mails address
manager (PAF) was selected as the source data

• included a household measure
• included valuable information in the text of
  addresses
• updated every three months
• a consistent and flexible areal base (grids)

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• The idea
• dwellings (addresses) are the basic units to be
  classified
• builds settlements from residential addresses
• identifies urban areas and isolated dwellings

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There are three elements to the UNDERLYING
definition FORM FUNCTION CONTEXT ...
leading to the CLASSIFICATION of areas
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1. Form

• is created from the average household density of
  addresses in 1 ha (100m) grid squares
• and is then applied at various scales (200m, 800m
  and 1600m) to give an average density for any
  particular grid square
• different types of settlement typically have
  different density profiles i.e urban areas
  8 dwellings/ha

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A Basic Density Definition Identifying Urban
Areas
Density at 800 m. around a 1ha grid is 8
households
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Urban Areas 2001 (ODPM) and Urban Households
(PAF)

• the density profile at 800m is incredibly
  accurate compared to urban area boundaries
• red PAF UAs
• purple land we do not include (i.e.
  airfields, docks, parks etc.),
• but we have to identify the places where other
  people live!

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Applying the Density Profile Rules to Reach the
Parts that Urban Areas Do Not

• urban (UAs)
• small urban
• villages
• small villages
• hamlets
• isolated dwellings
• and other typologies
• of settlement ...

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Settlement Structure in Detail
urban area urban shelf urban town urban
fringe nucleated village village
envelope scattered dwellings
Ascott
Hook Norton
Moreton in Marsh
Long Compton
Longborough
Evenlode
Chipping Norton
Stow on the Wold
Churchill
Hyde Hill
Dean
Spelsbury
Charlbury
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2. Function

• there is more to settlements than size alone
• however, service endowment (post offices, shops
  etc) can change fairly rapidly, and there are
  different roles in different places
• can we agree on services that define function?
• hence we propose defining function by the
  productive role
• using postal address type and address text from
  PAF
• and the Use Classes Order classification

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A Simple Classification of Urban Production
Type Residential Non Residential (Commercial)
Mix of Addresses
95 residential urban (commercial) cores small
urban places with 5 non residential
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Function derived from the classification of
business uses in PAF

• Grouped by the Use Classes Order
• A1 shop
• A3 shop serving food
• B Business Uses
• C1 Hotels,
• D Community Uses
• The approach is to cumulate numbers of
  establishments in each group in each hectare and
  classify by functional mix.

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Settlement Function a local view
Use classes in the Lake District
farms business hotels and guest houses shops
for food and drink other shops
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The Basic Mix of Functions
Bias to farms Bias to tourism Bias to other
business
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3. Context

• Issues
• in Scotland measured as distances from households
  to services,
• probably works for Scotland but raises issues of
  which services and which distances
• we have chosen to measure context via density
  ratios i.e ratio of businesses to households
• the greater the ratio of businesses to households
  the more accessible the area

• density is averaged at 10km, 20km and 30km

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Developing the National Context underlying
density at 20 km
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4 Settlement Classification around 40 Potential
Categories
Form Function Context Location 1 urban
10000 2 fringe urban solely residential non-rem
ote conurbation fringe 2 fringe urban other
business remote, significant Cumbrian coast 2
fringe urban other business non-remote Ashbourne 2
fringe urban tourist business Windermere 2
fringe urban tourist business Cheddar 3
village other business remote 3 village farm
business non-remote N Humberside 3
village tourist business remote,
significant Grasmere 3 village soleley
residential non-remote ex-urbs 4 hamlet farm
business remote West Somerset 4hamlet farm
business non-remote Arden 4 hamlet solely
residential non-remote Saddleworth 5
dispersed farm business remote Spurn 5
dispersed farm business non-remote Fens
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An Initial Classification of 2001 Census Output
Areas
urban 10000 nucleated rural scattered
rural urban fringe
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Validation of the methodology
will be on www.rural-urban.org.uk via
interactive mapping
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The new Rural and Urban Definition

• Products
• a classification of administrative areas (Output
  Areas, Wards and Districts) as urban and rural
• those areas rural and subdivided further
• Timetable
• validation - March to mid April
• publication on the NeSS website - Summer 2004
• Other Geographies
• a scoping of further work is in progress

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Benefits

• a standard classification for producers and users
  of statistics
• published on the NeSS website, viewable via
  interactive maps with downloadable files for
  administrative and statistical areas
• indicators will be linked to postcodes in the All
  Fields Postcode Directory (AFPD)
• boundaries can be established for rural areas for
  rural policy
• can link census, administrative and survey data
  to settlement types and contexts

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• having covered one main initiative we will now
  look at how geography information is communicated

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National StatisticsGeography Webpages

• Andrew Nash Office for National Statistics

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NS Geography Webpages

• www.statistics.gov.uk/geography
• launched 2001
• an online hub of UK geographic information,
  products and guidance
• over 100 pages, 27 maps and 80 names codes
  files
• continually maintained
• written for and used by a wide audience

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More Information?

• www.statistics.gov.uk/geography
• to subscribe to NS geography bulletins, e-mail
  julie.dickson_at_ons.gov.uk
• any other queries
• ONS Geography Customer Services
• Email ons.geography_at_ons.gov.uk
• Phone [phone] or -813477

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Conclusion

• geography is complicated
• geography harmonisation aims to standardise how
  we and others use geography
• this helps to minimise the problems
• rural and urban definitions project is a good
  example
• communicating information on the NS webpages
  helps to keep producers and users of statistics
  informed