SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Dec. 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Canary Institute of Statistics (ISTAC) has identified six large urban centers in the Canary Islands as a result of applying the methodological proposal of the degree of urbanization developed by Eurostat with an adaptation to the geographic, population and urban reality of the Canary Islands.
The key to this work is based on making it easier for the data provided to be comparable and useful for public administrations and other organizations that require data on the degree of urbanization for decision-making.
Six urban centers are identified based on georeferenced population data for the years 2021 and 2011. In Gran Canaria, urban centers appear in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Vecindario and Telde; in Tenerife they are identified in the conurbations of Santa Cruz de Tenerife-San Cristóbal de La Laguna and Puerto de la Cruz-Los Realejos, and finally in Lanzarote we find an urban center in Arrecife.
To reach this conclusion, the main objective of ISTAC has been to generate a cartography, based on the statistical grids used by the Institute, which reflects the indicator of the degree of urbanization defined by Eurostat in the document Application of the Manual on the Degree of Urbanization: methodological manual.
The work develops a proposal for the degree of urbanization of the Canary Islands consistent with the basic statistical grids used by ISTAC of 1 km, 500 m and 250 m to avoid possible inconsistencies that could arise between them when applying the Eurostat methodology directly to each mesh.
DIFFERENT TERRITORIES, THE SAME CRITERIA
Thanks to this adjustment carried out by ISTAC, the data on the degree of urbanization of the islands will be able to be compared with the rest of the areas of the European Union with more accuracy, without producing biases that prevent the interpretation of the data from such a fragmented territory. and small when compared to non-insular dimensions.
It seems logical that each country uses its own criteria to define urban and rural areas, adapted to its own singularities. However, in order to have significant international comparisons of the statistical indicators by urban and rural areas, it is necessary to have a definition that is adequate at the national level and at the same time comparable at the international level.
The proposed solution was to develop a global definition of cities, urban areas and rural areas that could be used generally throughout the world, based on the same layout criteria for all countries and regions. This proposal should lead to a harmonized and universal cartography of cities, towns, semi-dense areas and rural areas. Internationally comparable statistical information is essential for sound evidence-based policymaking and for measuring progress towards sustainable development goals in both urban and rural areas.
The work presented by ISTAC intends to deepen the definition of these areas on an insular scale that contemplates the characteristics of the Canary Islands, so that it is possible to compare their data with those of the rest of the world.
METHODOLOGY
Eurostat’s degree of urbanization indicator is important because it classifies the entire territory of a country along an urban/rural continuum through the combination of population size parameters and population density thresholds that it uses as the basis of the calculation the mesh of 1 km. This combination of data makes it possible to establish a classification into three mutually exclusive classes: urban centers (densely populated areas), semi-dense localities and areas (intermediate density areas) and rural areas (sparsely populated areas).
However, this methodology is very complicated to apply in insular areas such as the Canary Islands, where the distribution of the population does not meet criteria of concentration around large urban centers and from these there is a clear distinction between urban and rural areas, but we find a dispersion in the buildings that concentrate a high population density.
To solve this problem, ISTAC started with the calculation of the degree of urbanization in the 1 km grid, as indicated by the Eurostat methodology, and then lowered it to 500 m and 250 m, using the same form of classification whenever maintained the population density criteria for each level.
Note: The complete work developed by ISTAC can be consulted at https://datos.canarias.es/catalogos/estadisticas/showcase/gr…
