From territorial information to the territorial indicators portal (Christophe Breuer, Université de Liège, Belgium)

I. Introduction

The use of contextual territorial information constitutes an important precondition to the implementation of certain projects. The analyzes of the existing data makes it possible to put forward certain difficulties encountered within the territory, directs the strategies and contributes to bring coherence to the actions.

In order to conclude this big step, the actors of the development, and more particularly the local actors, are constrained to collect information near various suppliers. Their use depends largely on their accessibility, which includes the availability of the data and their cost.

The aim of our project was to create a tool of assistance for the management of these data, at the attention of the local actors. The concretization of this project requires many theoretical and technical reflections for the development of the tool which has to be usable for territorial actors.

II. Territorial information

Territorial information is information for which the spatial component is important. Territorial information thus has a broad field of acceptance, a contrario of the term of indicator which gives specifically, and by definition, an indication on a situation of development considered as positive or negative.

II.1 Inventory of socio-economic and environmental information

The research undertaken between 2006 and 2007 concerning the European contextual indicators aims to inventory those and characterize their accessibility.

In the framework of the CAENTI project, information must necessarily be available for spatial entities at a lower level than the countries. The exploitation of the national statistical sites is thus necessary, on the one hand, to have the data at the local level (for example communes), and on the other hand, to supplement the offer of service proposed by EUROSTAT. These sources asked the question of the harmonization of the protocols of data processing between statistical levels on the one hand, and contiguous space entities having different statistical organizations on the other hand.

II.2 Selection of indicators

Their role is to give an account of a situation and to simplify the information by synthesizing it, by allowing a better communication and by authorizing cartographic comparisons. The selection was treated under the angle of the complementarities of the method CATALYSE, which makes it possible to confront the needs of the populations with the offer of the proposed services, by taking into account the socio-economic environment. On the basis of a selection of 44 questions of the evaluation and diagnosis guide, 15 territorial indicators were highlighted. They can illustrate 20 selected questions of the guide.

III. Portal of indicators

III.1 Relevance of cartography for representation

The cartographic representation was privileged to allow a better legibility of information, the comprehension of the space disparities and the possibility of comparison with other areas. All in all, although the reading of maps is not acquired for all, it is a powerful communication tool.

In the framework of the caENTI project, the communal level seems to be a basic level of representation both for the administrative (action) and statistical data. The definition of the communes through the countries of the European Union seems to be compatible with the research of a basic level, although this one is not perfect. This basic level should not make forget that the majority of the actors, in particular those which work on a city or district scale, must have more precise data than those on a communal scale to highlight in a relevant and dynamic way, disparities or priority areas of actions.

III.2 Gathering shapefiles and indicators

The data-gathering is a crucial step in the realization of the gate of territorial information. Two types of files are necessary: on the one hand, data to be represented, and on the other hand, a file representing spatial cutting in entities (communes, country…).

a. Contextual data

As proposed previously, EUROSTAT mainly collects furnished information with thirds (national institutes…), which generates information gaps within the databases. On the level of the national suppliers, it is the multitude which increases the difficulty of obtaining the data. Acquisition can moreover be expensive for certain very small spatial levels (for example for the communes in France and for the statistical sectors in Belgium).

Within four pilot countries, we could collect several simple indicators (total population, population density, unemployment rate, and foreigner rate, income of households…) in a continuous way, from the NUTS 1 until the LAU2/NUTS5.

b. Geographical data

The geographical data constitute the base of the spatial representation of the indicators. Primarily exchanged and distributed in the form of file vector “shapefiles”, we tried to preserve the homogeneity of the format for the whole of the collected data. The national and international distributors of geographical data propose generally various alternative formats, although the shapefiles are dominant.

The cartography of various countries in the same interface and in a continuous way can be confronted with various problems. They primarily result from the characteristics of the various cartographic products. Among those, we will retain the reference levels of the digitalization, the basic scale of the cartography, the inaccuracy being able to reach several kilometers or employed projections. The constraints related to the cost of the data also exist for geographical information.

The countries which give the geographical data for free are a minority in European space. The majority of them require a price growing according to the precision of the data and in certain cases the format.

We found only one private distributer of geographical data for the whole of the European Union and certain countries partners. This supplier places at the disposal various products at the scale of the Union of which a map of administrative cuttings having for geometrical base the administrative communes or equivalents. The base assignee of this supplier eludes the question of the diversity of the identifiers (met for national suppliers) since those are harmonized according to European nomenclature NUTS/LAU. The use of such a product is optimal because it makes it possible to have uniform layers of information whose precision is satisfactory taking into consideration the objective of the tool. Nevertheless its cost in the long term makes its exploitation impossible for a big number of local actors having reduced financial means. It would be interesting to be able to develop in a near future a similar product, of which accessibility would not be subjected to such financial constraints.

III.3 Data about data: metadata

Different arguments are in favor of the collection and the aggregation of metadata describing at the same time the data themselves. Firstly, the end users must be able to analyze the data by knowing the calculating methods of the indicators, the year of the data, their source, etc. Secondly, the metadata are useful within the framework of the updates and the various automatic treatments being able to be carried out on the database.

The research undertaken within the framework of program CAENTI aims to harmonize the metadata and to adapt them to the geographical data and the indicators. The research undertaken in this direction is based on Dublin Core, INSPIRE directive and the ISO standards.

III.4 Webmapping

Web mapping enables delivery and publication of interactive maps, data from GIS, and associated metadata, with the ability to query, manipulate, and interact with data. Maps can be linked to databases and other information sources, allowing them to be visualized and queried.

Web based interactive map is a very powerful tool. First, it is a dynamic tool. End user can interact with it to display the map – and also contextual information – that he wants. This is the most important advantage compared to the static, pre-prepared maps that are basically static images. Second, it is a highly visual tool, and graphical presentation can outperform normal textual or tabular information. Last but not least, it is very simple to use. Only basic computer skills are required for the end user to be able to get all the capabilities.

Main objective of the web mapping portal that has been developed within the caENTI framework was to design an interactive map of Europe for visual representation of selected caENTI indicators. It was built on standard web mapping technology, on an open source based software solution. The final goal is to give the user with only basic computer knowledge – in short time – the means to visualize and analyze socio-economic parameters.

IV. Conclusion

The realization of a European gate of indicators as component of the cognitive process of the territories requires a particularly important ground work. After an inventory and a selection of the indicators represented on the basis of the guide adapted to the method CATALYSE, the relative questions to obtaining the data and the metadata emerged. The collection of information was also particularly instructive to show the availability and the cost of acquisition of geographical information or indicators. The disparities of information spread shown during the research also show the difficulties encountered by the actors to obtain abundant and relevant territorial information. The centralization of the information and its standardization seem to be an essential prerequisite for the processes of the territory knowledge, efficient and accessible for the various actors.

The use of an interactive cartographic interface based on technologies of Web mapping makes it possible to exploit with relevance the elements implemented before and to widely diffuse near users, whom are sometimes not accustomed with the methods of cartography essential for the comprehension of the territories. The existence of a functional prototype based on real and territorialized data tends to confirm the feasibility of one gate on a European scale, realizing substantial improvements on the level of the accessibility of the data.