Merging statistics and geospatial information, 2016 projects - Italy
A reusable WebGIS application and a geospatial database schema for EU country comparisons; 2016 project; final report October 2018
This article forms part of Eurostat’s statistical report on the Integration of statistical and geospatial information.
Full article
Problem
A need for linking indicators and EU territorial policies was identified. Among the policies considered were cohesion policies, the Europe 2020 policy, sustainable development goals and maritime policies. Maritime policies are considered the main influencing factor for the development of some core indicators for coastal areas and are aimed at maximising sustainable use of seas and oceans.
Objectives
To develop a workflow for integrating statistical and geographical information and to develop a web application. The project initially focused on presenting data for the coastal regions of EU Member States bordering the Mediterranean Sea but was then extended to coastal regions of all EU Member States (including at the time the United Kingdom) and some non-EU countries (Iceland, Norway, Montenegro and Türkiye).
Method
The project comprised seven steps.
- Defining the domains (territorial area, themes and time coverage)
- Selecting sources (and indicators for each source)
- Defining the structure and functionalities of the web application
- Development of a prototype
- Dissemination of the first web application (accompanied by a web mapping course) – UE Coast Med
- Updating and extension of the web application
- Dissemination of the extended (final) web application in two languages covering coastal regions of all EU Member States – UE Coast
The UE Coast web application was created based on institutional experience (since 1995) as well as data models and application templates existing within Gistat (ISTAT’s geographical information system).
A template with a multi-panel approach was reused in order to facilitate space-time comparisons among statistical indicators.
Datasets are stored in a geodatabase: one level contains the geographical data (that will not be changed for the chosen reference years; this is the map layer); the second level contains the statistical data, which can be updated and enriched with new survey results over time.
Results
The web application (UE Coast) is composed by four interactive independent map panels in which a user can compare data after choosing the statistical indicators, the year and the level of territorial detail.
- Various thematic areas are covered: tourism, environment, transport, population, economic growth, social inclusion and education.
- Annual time series generally start from 2008.
- Geographical data are at NUTS level 2 and/or level 3.
- Maps are shown as choropleths.
Four indicator comparisons are available:
- spatial – four geographical areas for the same year;
- temporal – four different years for the same geographical area;
- thematic – different indicators in the same theme for the same year or same geographical area;
- free – different indicators in different themes for the same year or same geographical area.
Particular attention was paid to the methods used for the division of data into classes. The classes are calculated within the application using a variety of methods, with a specific method predetermined for each indicator. A common division of classes is applied for any particular indicator, facilitating comparisons over time. Information on the method used is provided alongside the legend.
A metadata template site has been used and customised to provide documentation through queries launched by users. Meta-information is presented in a dashboard on the left-hand side of the application and includes general and indicator-specific metadata.
The maps are interactive, whereby users may click on a particular region and will receive a summary of the information shown: the code and label of the region, the name of the indicator and the value shown, any notes and a link to a page providing more information about the indicator.
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