The European Commission’s science
and knowledge service
Joint Research Centre

Measuring the urban dimension
of the SDGs in Europe
Alice Siragusa & Pilar Vizcaino Martinez
OECD
Paris, 14th May 2019
Joint Research Centre – Territorial Development Unit

Communities of Practice on
Cities
The Future of Cities
Territorial modelling and
indicators for Europe and Africa
To strengthen the evidence base,
within the EC and with external
stakeholders (from city level to
international organizations)
First joint outcome of the CoP-CITIES
First step towards an urban
observatory
Status and trends of urban areas in
Europe, Africa (+ Mediterranean Basin
TBD)
The latest JRC Urban activities

Urban Data Platform +
http://urban.jrc.ec.europa.eu
My Place Trends

Benchmarking

Sustainable Development Goals

An handbook for local authorities
European Handbook for the preparation of Voluntary Local Reviews (LVRs) on SDGs
 Goal:
→ Provide an overview of methods and data that can support the implementation
and monitoring of urban contribution to the 2030 Agenda
 Target audience:
→ Local and regional authorities
 Structure – two main sections:
→ Set of existing indicators at local level that can support the monitoring of the
SDGs;
→ Methodology on how cities can integrate SDGs in their strategic activities.
 To be launched at the World Urban Forum 10 – February 2020
URBAN 2030 - Joint project DG REGIO - JRC

Twin project developed with UN-Habitat and
DG REGIO
 Goal: develop and improve existing methodologies for some
selected urban indicators
 Thematic workshops
 Collaboration with other institutions and experts
 First workshop: end of June 2019

Local Indicators for the monitoring of the SDGs
 The European dimension of the SDG
 Implication of the goal for the local policies (effectiveness and
tools/potential)
 Local indicators - Data available produced by EC or by other
institutions (comparable for a good number of cities/regions).
 Example of proxy data for alternative sources
 Example of proxy data available at local level that can be
used to monitor the goal

Example: Goal 9
European Dimension of the goal
Description of the goal
Why is cities’ contribution fundamental for
achieving this Goal?

Example: Goal 9
Metadata
Description of the indicator
Constrains and Limitations

Example: Goal 9
Metadata
Description of the indicator
Constrains and Limitations

Example: Goal 9
Metadata
Description of the indicator
Constrains and Limitations

Example: Goal 9
Metadata
Description of the indicator
Constrains and Limitations

Example: local indicator for SDG 3
Distance to the nearest
health facility at local,
sub-regional and
regional level, by 1km
grid
Source: Mert Kompil, Chris Jacobs-
Crisioni, Lewis Dijkstra, Carlo Lavalle,
Mapping accessibility to generic
services in Europe: A market-potential
based approach, Sustainable Cities
and Society, Volume 47,
2019, 101372, ISSN 2210-6707,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.11.04
7.

Challenges for the local monitoring
 Completeness of coverage
 Availability of time series
 Comparability of cities in different countries
 Question of relevance (does the indicator provide relevant
information on the progress towards the SDG at city level?)
 Link to specific actions and investments

How can we tailor the LVRs to the local challenges?
• Benchmarking and harmonized data are needed. Cities or regions
may be interested in benchmark with other cities or regions in other
countries which face similar challenges.
• Local contexts and challenges should be taken into consideration to
designed a tailored LVR

Any questions?
Thank You
alice.siragusa@ec.europa.eu
Knowledge Centre for Territorial Policies
https://ec.europa.eu/knowledge4policy/territorial_en
Urban Data Platform +
http://urban.jrc.ec.europa.eu