1 Urban Ecosystem Europe An integrated assessment of the urban environment in the main European cities Maria Berrini – Lorenzo Bono [email protected].

1

Urban Ecosystem Europe

An integrated assessment of the urban environment in the main European cities

Maria Berrini – Lorenzo [email protected]

www.ambienteitalia.it/eng

2

The Urban Ecosystem Europe 2006 Report provides an integrated assessment (about 20 indicators) of the urban environment in the main or bigger European cities and refers to the Aalborg Commitments and the EU Thematic Strategy on Urban Environment policy framework. The survey is prepared by Ambiente Italia Research Institute, financed in 2006 and 2007 by DEXIA Group (an international banking group), and endorsed by the NGO Legambiente-Italy and by EU city networks such as ICLEI, UBC, MEDCITIES, the French COMITE’21, the Italian Coordinamento Agende 21 Locali. It shows strengths and weaknesses and provide a baseline review for the main european cities. The 2007 edition is currently under development: new participants and endorsers are welcome!

Urban Ecosystem Europe - ABSTRACT

3

Urban Indicators and Benchmarking: the framework

The EU Commission - Thematic strategy on the urban environment (January 2006) To monitor and up-date the effectiveness of this Strategy, accessible urban

data is needed. The Commission will work…. The EU Parlament (October 2006) Demands that the Commission guidance document incorporate common

core indicators in line with EU obligations and targets … (e.g. air, noise, water and waste directives, energy efficiency and climate policy) to allow for comparisons and benchmarking between European cities…

Aalborg commitments signatories (2004) We are committed to cooperate with the European Sustainable Cities &

Towns Campaign and its networks to monitor and evaluate our progress towards meeting our sustainability targets

Indicators and benchmarking activities Set of indicators: Urban audit, ECI, TISSUE/STATUS 15 years of experience in urban reporting (ECI, Urban ecosystem in Italy

and others)

4

Urban Ecosystem Europe 2006 and 2007: the themes

Governance and management (EMS, agenda 21) Natural common goods - Water (water consumption,

treatment plants) Responsible consumption - Waste (production and

differentiated collection) Planning and design - Liveability (green and

pedestrian areas) Better mobility (cycle paths and public transport) Health – Air and Noise (PM10 and NO2 concentrations;

Noise map and reduction plan) Local/global - Energy and Climate change (solar

power, district heating, CO2 target reduction, energy saving)

5

The 20 indicators of the 2006 Survey

Air quality: PM10 annual mean (g/m3) Air quality: NO2 annual mean (g/m3) Inhab. served by water treatment plants (% of pop) Domestic water consumption (l/inh per day) Public green areas (m2/inh) Pedestrian areas (m2/inh) Cycle paths (m/inh) Passengers travelling on public transport within the urban

area (pass./inh) PT lines (Underground, railway and tram) in the urban area

(m/inh) Amount of municipal waste production (kg/inh) Municipal waste processed according to differentiated refuse

collection schemes (% of waste produced)

6

The 20 indicators of the 2006 Survey

Green Public Procurement procedures (yes/no); GPP: Organic food served in public canteens (% of meals);

Use of recycled paper in public offices (% of paper) Setting of a CO2 reduction target (yes/no; %) Solar power generation in public buildings (kW/1000 inh) Inhabitants connected to a district heating system (% of

pop) Energy saving policies (yes/no; year) Noise map and noise reduction plan (yes/no) EMAS and ISO 14001 certification of public authorities

(yes/no; number) Level of implementation of an Agenda 21 process

(yes/no; year)

7

Data search Data collection: By means of questionnaires to the

main 50 EU cities and focused analysis on existing EU data base (3 months).

Response rate: 80 parameters collected from 26 cities useful to develop 20 indicators (lack of data for population exposed to different noise levels).

Data reliability: Local Administrations take the formal responsibility of data.

Quality control: Ambiente Italia takes care of a final quality control, looking at internal coherence of data and sending data back to the cities for a final agreement.

8

2006 participants

Metropolit. areas

Big Medium Small

BerlinGreater LondonMadridParis

Rome

BarcelonaBrussels

LyonMilan

NaplesPragueVienna

BristolCopenhag.DresdenGoteborgHelsinki

RigaStockholmSaragossa

AntwerpAarhus

HeidelbergNicosia

TampereTurku

13 Member States; 9 northern cities; 8

central; 7 southern; 2 eastern

9

10

Air quality

PM10 concentrations: annual mean (g/mc)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

max

mean

target2005

target2010

A difference is well visible between Central European cities and Mediterranean ones; Barcelona, Milan, Nicosia and Rome register the highest values, while the lowest concentrations are recorded among northern cities.

11

Air quality

77% of cities exceeds at least in one sample point (hot spot) the NO2 yearly average target value of 40 g/m3 set for 2010.

46% does not respect the PM10 yearly limit value set for 2005 (40 g/m3) and more than 90% exceed the 2010 target (20 g/m3).

6 cities exceed more than 3 times the limit value referred to PM10 hourly exceedance of 50 mg/m3.

12

Cycle paths

Cycle paths (m/100 inh)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Turku, Helsinki, Tampere, Aarhus

Stockholm, Heidelb. Goteborg, Copenh, Vienna, Dresden

The spreading of bicycle paths is above all a cultural factor, independent from weather conditions: the cities where cycling paths exceed one metre per inhabitant are all medium/small northern cities, followed by a group of medium north-central cities.

13

Cycle paths

1.000 km in Helsinki (560.000 inhabitants).

Less than 30 km in Riga and Saragossa (700.000 inhabitants).

No one in Naples (1.000.000 inhabitants).

14

Public transport

Passengers of public transport (pass/inh)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Par

is

Rom

e

Mad

rid

G. L

ondo

n

Ber

lin

Pra

gue

Vie

nna

Mila

n

Lyon

napl

es

Bru

ssel

s

Hel

sink

i

Rig

a

Dre

sden

Got

ebor

g

Sar

agos

sa

Bris

tol

Hei

delb

erg

Ant

wer

p

Aar

hus

Tam

pere

Turk

u

Nic

osia

metropolis smallmediumbig

15

Public transport

More than 900 passengers/inhab in Prague (57% daily trips with PT) and 700 pass/inhab in Paris.

400 pass/inhab in Rome, Greater London, Madrid, Vienna and Milan.

Helsinki and Riga are the only medium sized cities having values comparable to larger ones.

No significant values in Nicosia (16 pass/inh).

16

Urban design

The inhabitants of Goteborg, Aarhus, Helsinki, Tampere and Stockholm have, at least, 100 square meters of per capita green areas.

Goteborg, Tampere and Barcelona have the highest values of per capita pedestrian areas.

17

Parks and gardens

Parks and gardens (m2/inh)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Urban woods included

Goteborg, Aarhus, Helsinki, Tampere, Stockholm, Nicosia, Turku, Prague

18

ResponsibleConsumption

In Bristol, Milan, Paris e Saragossa more than 250 daily litres/inh. of drinking water are consumed for domestic use.

All cities, with the exception of Prague, exceed the 300 kg yearly per capita production of urban waste.

Naples, Nicosia and Turku exceed 600 waste kg/inhabitant.

19

Separate waste collection

Separated waste collection (%)

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

Antw erp, Turku, Dresden, Helsinki,

Barcelona

Separate waste collection - a two speed Europe: Scandinavian and central European cities have recycling percentages of 35% to 60%; Mediterranean cities, cities of East Europe and Great Britain register low recycling percentages, usually below 20%.

20

Separate waste collection

5 cities over 40%. 10 cities still under 15%. 4 of the 5 metropolitan areas are

under the average value.

21

Energy and Climate change

13 cities set CO2 reduction targets, to be reached within the next 5 years.

Berlin and Vienna have the highest number of solar plants installed on public buildings, followed by Heidelberg, Paris, Barcelona and Rome (all with more than 1000 kW).

In Helsinki, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Tampere and Stockholm more than 70% of the population is connected to a district heating system.

22

Governance and Management

Although Agenda 21 has been implemented for years, only 14 cities adopted a specific A21 action plan.

9 northern cities (and Barcelona) have at least one office/department certified EMAS or ISO 14001.

The purchase of “environmentally friendly” products by public administrations occurs only in a few central-northern cities in an organized and systematic way.

23

City Helsinki

Country Finland

Inhabitants 559.046

Area (km2) 187

Density (inh/km2) 2.990

GDP-regio (euro/inh) na

Helsinki Mean Median Ranking

43 60 56 1°

24 39 40 1°

100% 92% 99% 1°

217 180 159 4°

134 44 19 1°

na 1,11 0,21 na

193 56 17 1°

431 322 273 1°

19 17 17 2°

546 502 518 3°

46% 26% 26% 1°

485 1.519 0 2°

98% 45% 46% 1°

to be appr. in part

NA NA

NA NA

NA NA

>0 NA

YES NA

YES Use of recycled paper in offices 3%

NA 1998-2002

NO since 1998

0 2002

4 NO

Agenda 21 local action plan

Aalborg Commitments

Energy policies - public lighting

ISO/EMAS - public administration State of the environment report

GPP - offices

Agenda 21

Energy policies - private building

CO2 reduction target

Air quality plan

Noise map

Noise management plan

GPP - buildings

Green public purchasing procedures

GPP - electronics

GPP - vehicles

GPP - cleanings

Urban Ecosystem Europe 2006

Annual mean concentration NO2 (g/m3) - hot spot

Cycle paths (m/100 inh)

Lines of public transport by rail (m/100 inh)

Municipal waste production (kg/inh year)

Separated collection of municipal waste (%)

Solar plants in public buildings (kW)

Inhabitants connected to a district heating network (%)

Energy balance

ISO/EMAS - offices/departments

ISO/EMAS - utilities

Public parks and gardens (m2/inh)

Pedestrian areas (m2/inh)

Annual mean concentration PM10 (g/m3) - hot spot

Inhabitants connected to a wastewater treatment plant (%)

Household water consumption (l/inh day)

Public transport passengers (pass/inh year)

Energy policies - public building

NO2

PM 10

Sewage treatm.

Water cons.

Parks and gardensCycling

Public transport

Waste

Separated collect.

Helsinki mean

24

Urban Ecosystem Europe 2007: possible improvements

Enlarge the endorsement (trying to involve the main EU actors).

Increase the number and geographical coverage of participating cities.

Create clusters of cities, in line with the comparison and benchmarking aim.

Refinement of the set of indicators (considering 2006 results in terms of feasibility and relevance of indicators; focusing on climate change; strengthening the harmonisation or synergies with other existing sets, etc.).

More in-depth data assessment: historical trends, regional analysis, …

25

Urban Ecosystem Europe 2007

JOIN US ! Maria Berrini – Lorenzo Bono

[email protected]/eng

Help us to find new participating cities, other endorsers and sponsors, to ensure the periodical maintenance of the reporting mechanism.