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

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: t he 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 (PM 10 and NO 2 concentrations; Noise map and reduction plan)  Local/global - Energy and Climate change (solar power, district heating, CO 2 target reduction, energy saving)

5 The 20 indicators of the 2006 Survey  Air quality : PM 10 annual mean (  g/m 3 )  Air quality : NO 2 annual mean (  g/m 3 )  Inhab. served by water treatment plants (% of pop)  Domestic water consumption (l/inh per day)  Public green areas (m 2 /inh)  Pedestrian areas (m 2 /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  G reen P ublic P rocurement procedures (yes/no);  GPP: Organic food served in public canteens (% of meals); Use of recycled paper in public offices (% of paper)  Setting of a CO 2 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 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.

participants Metropolit. areas BigMediumSmall Berlin Greater London Madrid Paris Rome Barcelona Brussels Lyon Milan Naples Prague Vienna Bristol Copenhag. Dresden Goteborg Helsinki Riga Stockholm Saragossa Antwerp Aarhus Heidelberg Nicosia Tampere Turku 13 Member States; 9 northern cities; 8 central; 7 southern; 2 eastern

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10 Air quality 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 NO 2 yearly average target value of 40  g/m 3 set for  46% does not respect the PM 10 yearly limit value set for 2005 (40  g/m 3 ) and more than 90% exceed the 2010 target (20  g/m 3 ).  6 cities exceed more than 3 times the limit value referred to PM 10 hourly exceedance of 50 mg/m 3.

12 Cycle paths 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  km in Helsinki ( inhabitants).  Less than 30 km in Riga and Saragossa ( inhabitants).  No one in Naples ( inhabitants).

14 Public transport

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

18 Responsible Consumption  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 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 CO 2 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  The purchase of “environmentally friendly” products by public administrations occurs only in a few central-northern cities in an organized and systematic way.

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