Urbanisation and its impact on Quality of Place in Europe Judith Borsboom, Stefan Berghuis, Jos Diederiks, Rob Folkert, Henk Ottens.

Urbanisation and its impact on Quality of Place in Europe

Judith Borsboom, Stefan Berghuis, Jos Diederiks, Rob Folkert, Henk Ottens

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 2

The EURBANIS Project

• Gain more insight into European spatial processes and their impact on

environment, ecology and Quality of Life/Place

Urbanity UrbanisationBuilt-up area Pop. density Built-up area Pop. density

+ + + / - + / - + ++ + + + + + 0 -+ / - + / - + /- + + +

+ + + + + + + + ++ / - + / - + / - + / -

0 + + + + / - - - -0 + / - + / - 0

+ / - - - 0 - -

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 6

Case Study Cities

Cluster 1 Stagnating: ReimsCluster 2 Compact: AarhusCluster 3 Leisure: SüdburgenlandCluster 4 Shrinking: VilniusCluster 5 Sprawling: ErfurtCluster 6 Average: Rotterdam, BolognaCluster 7 Booming: Madrid

Link to Quality of Life/Quality of Place on base ofUrban Audit data on a local level: economic, social,environmental, housing, land use variables

• archetypical characteristics of urbanisation cluster• presence in Urban Audit database • representation of European regions

Economic Social Environment

•Income•Employment

•Demographics•Education•Health and -care•Crime•Culture

•Air pollution•Noise•Green spaces•Land-use•Transport•Housing

Environmentalperspective• Characteristics of environment

Sustainability•Elsewhere and later perspective

Human perspective•Satisfaction with environment

•Here and now

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 8

Case study Erfurt• Urban land use:

– high increase built-up area on farmland due to economic growth and transition and residential preferences

• Urban densities: – large decrease because of single-familiy housing and

depopulation/migration

• Urban green: – older inner city districts low rates of green areas, new residential

development in lower densities with more urban green

• Air quality:– new road infrastructure, decrease of noise and air pollution in inner

city,

• Social Cohesion: – more polarisation due to suburbanisation, accumulation of problems in

some districts, decrease of service level due to depopulation

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 9

Lessons Learned• Comparable problems observed (such as transport, air

pollution, segregation, lack of urban green)

• Nevertheless the drivers behind and the manifestation of urbanisation may diverge between different European regions: this heterogeneity only revealed with a more qualitative, in depth approach with case studies

• Approach of Shafer and Pacione most practical to work out Liveability, Quality of Life, Quality of Place

• Perception of Quality of Life/Place is important next to empirical observations

Judith Borsboom, EURBANIS 10

Preliminary conclusions

• Lack of harmonised data and time series major obstacle for analysis of changes and bench-marking purposes: should be completed and validated

• A clear practical framework to assess urbanisation is still needed for balanced and sustainable urban development

• Liveable cities project might provide clues for such a framework