Essnet PROJECT INTERMEDIARY REPORT

ESSnet INTERMEDIARY REPORT GEOSTAT 1B FRONT PAGE

ESSnet PROJECT INTERMEDIARY REPORT

Grant Agreement number: 50502.2009.004-2011.536

Project acronym:

Project title: GEOSTAT 1B – Representing census data in European population grid

Periodic report: 1st □ 2nd □ 3rd □ 4th □ Period covered: from: 01/01-2012 to: 31/12-2012

Name, title and organisation of the scientific representative of the project's coordinator1: Ola Nordbeck, Advisor, Statistics Norway

Tel: 0047 21 09 48 78

E-mail: [email protected]

Project website2 address: www.efgs.info

1 Usually the contact person of the coordinator. 2 The home page of the website should contain the generic European flag and the Eurostat logo which are available in electronic format at the Europa website (logo of the European flag: http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/emblem/index_en.htm). The area of activity of the project should also be mentioned.

2 Part A. TECHNICAL REPORT

3 Introduction/Summary

The GEOSTAT 1B project

This report is a result of the efforts in the GEOSTAT 1B project. This project is following the initial GEOSTAT 1A project with the aim of developing guidelines for datasets and methods in order to link population statistics from the Census 2010/2011 to a common harmonised grid.

The project consortium is based on partners in the European Forum for Geostatistics (EFGS) as beneficiaries and as voluntary contributors. Many of these were also involved in the GEOSTAT 1A project and are important for the sustainability of the GEOSTAT action.

The main objective of the GEOSTAT 1B project is to make guidelines for others, primary national statistical institutes, to follow for making gridded population statistics in a harmonised way. The guidelines will be produced for:

“bottom-up” countries who have georeferenced population registers or georeferenced population census data and who need to sum population data to an aggregated level. In this case square kilometre grids.

“hybrid” countries who have a blend of population data from georeferenced register data to calculated population estimates using satellite imagery.

The guidelines will also be applied in order to generate population grid datasets, above all total population but also population breakdowns. In order to highlight the potential of grid statistics the project is developing case studies where the population statistics can be combined with other datasets for various purposes e.g. planning, risk management, environmental management, transport etc.

The project is also trying to identify ways to disseminate grid statistics easily without obstacles such as licensing matters.

The EFGS website is being used for dissemination of the project results and is continuously improving. The EFGS conference is also an important event of the project. The use of the network of experts within EFGS and the website of EFGS is important for the long term goals of the project and the sustainability of the EFGS is therefore vital. The project will present a sustainable data policy for population grid statistics.

The GEOSTAT 1B efforts (work and results) in 2012

Based on the experience from the GEOSTAT 1A project it was found important to have work shops in order to ensure that the project keep track with the project plan. After two work shops in Oslo and a project meeting at the EFGS conference in Prague the project is progressing in line with the project plan.

The most important progress is the work with the “bottom-up” approach where we have produced a set of production case studies and a methodology for how to generate grids based on georeferenced registers. The project has defined a set of quality assessment criterias but the consortium has not agreed on a final version. The discussion will continue in 2013.

The project has also carried out surveys among EFGS members (here National Statistical Institutes in Europe) and other stakeholders in order to be able to integrate more population variables and not only total population. A possible shared business model has also been drafted and all this is gathered in a report.

The website of EFGS has gone through some important and necessary changes and has been an important theme in the workshops. The GEOSTAT project is more visible and accessible for the users of the EFGS website.

4 The project consortium has followed the meeting activity plan including organising and participating in work shops and the EFGS conference. The road map for ensuring future production of European population grids is in a final draft version, but a clear maintenance plan is still under discussion.

Expected final results from the GEOSTAT 1B project

The overall results of the GEOSTAT 1B project are a set of reports including methodology and guidelines that will enable European National Statistical Institutes to produce and disseminate grid statistics. Production of datasets including population data and some case studie datasets will also be published as a result of the project. In order to ensure the production of the datasets as well as the future organisation of the yearly EFGS conferences the GEOSTAT 1B consortium will generate a paper on how to institutionalise the EFGS.

All deliverables are to be found on the project website of EFGS: http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B

Work progress and achievements during the period

Work package 1 Geostatistics was originally divided into four work packages. The first work package WP-1A was supposed to focus on the hands on work carried out by all the partners in order to verify the quality of existing Pan-European population grids (mainly the population grid of the Austrian Institute of Technology produced for Eurostat). Case studies and a methodology for improving the existing population grids were planned to be produced as well as prototype datasets with population data from the different partners.

WP-1B and WP-1C were supposed to assist the WP 1 partners in generating population grids based on aggregation, disaggregation or mixed methods. The two work packages were also supposed to create case studies in order to assess existing and new population grids.

WP-1D was meant to unify and harmonise population datasets from the various project partners and voluntary contributors. Case studies were here planned to be used in order to verify the quality of the new Pan-European datasets.

In the kick-off meeting it was agreed between the project group and Eurostat that regarding WP-1A the main contribution of the project will consist in providing assistance and/or test data to European disaggregation projects for quality evaluation purposes. Potential partners are the JRC or Eurostat contractors. The provision of test data and assistance will stay within the limits set by data confidentiality and business interests of the participating NSIs. Advise on how to possibly improve disaggregation techniques based on national expertise is welcome but the project group is not expected to actually develop European disaggregation datasets. Rather, disaggregation work by the consortium will focus on disaggregation in a national context where applicable using national data. Country specific innovative solutions to the disaggregation problem will be proposed if they present themselves.

This have had some impacts on the project and especially on WP-1A and WP-1B where the focus has been now more on the bottom-up and hybrid approach than on the top down approach.

WP-1A Testing and quality assessment

A summary of progress towards objectives and details;

In accordance with the application this project task is about verifying the quality of existing Pan-European population grids (mainly the population grid developed by the Austrian Institute of Technology for Eurostat). If possible the partners were also welcome to give advice on how to possibly improve disaggregation techniques based on national data and expertise.

Highlight clearly significant results:

5 The work package leaders have carried out an initial test and quality assessment of the disaggregated data of Austrian Institute of Technology. This work will be continued in 2013.The results of these assessments can be found in the document called “Testing and quality assessment of pan-european population grids - based on the Norwegian experience” In the kick-off meeting it was decided to work with the quality assessment parameters that were developed in the GEOSTAT 1A project. The project consortium has defined a list with important parameters but have not been able to agree on a shorter and complete set of assessment parameters. The discussion will continue in 2013. In addition, a more overall benchmarking method is about to be developed and will function as a “model” or “ideal” dataset. Quality according to this method is achieved by a process where individual (NSI) proposals (National GEOSTAT Datasets) are compared with a model national contribution to a future harmonised pan European GEOSTAT Dataset and deviations will be reported.

Documents to support this issue:

1. Testing and quality assessment of pan-european population grids - based on the Norwegian experience (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/Testing%20and%20QA%20of%20PanEuropean%20grid/

2. EFGS Modified Quality Assessment Parameters (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/efgs-modified-quality-assessment-parameters)

3. “Quality assessment: A benchmarking approach” (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/quality-assessment-a-benchmarking-approach)

WP-1B Geostatistics by disaggregation or mixed methods

A summary and significant results of progress towards objectives and details;

The efforts in 2012 were mainly focusing on the bottom approach. However, The Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (BNSI) can be categorised as a “hybrid” country in the project consortium and have until now gathered data that can be used for aggregation. BNSI has also started to plan for how to complement existing micro data with a top-down approach. As mentioned under WP-1A an assessment has been carried out by Statistics Norway in 2012 and these efforts will be joined with the efforts of BNSI in 2013.

There is also a tradition within the GEOSTAT consortium for assisting disaggregation works with knowledge and data. In 2012 the GEOSTAT partners were approached for assisting the Urban Atlas with the disaggregation work carried out by JRC.

Czech Statistical Office has also studied the possibilities for using disaggregation methods in their work with producing population grids for previous years to 2011.

1. Progress of Bulgaria on GEOSTAT 1B 13-15 June 2012, workshop 2, Oslo Norway. (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/progress-of-bulgaria-on-geostat-1b)

2. Testing and quality assessment of pan-european population grids - based on the Norwegian experience (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/Testing%20and%20QA%20of%20PanEuropean%20grid/)

3. Summing up and closing down of topic (http://www.czso.cz/efgs/efgs2012.nsf/i/presentation_kraus/ $File/Czech%20Republic_KRAUS.pdf)

WP-1C Geostatistics by aggregation

A summary and significant results of progress towards objectives and details;

The main efforts in 2012 have been on establishing a methodology for generating population grids based on the bottom-up approach and collected input from various project partners. The work is now finished and the results will be placed on EFGS website as training material early 2013.

6 The methodology report was based on the experiences from the various partners. These “Production case studies” are included in an appendix to the methodology report. As a part of the production process each partner assessed the quality of the existing Pan-European grid net country clip. The “Production case studies” are one type of case studies in the project. The other type of case studies are “Operational case studies”. “Operational case studies” are, according to the project definition, case studies that demonstrate useful applications of population grid data and as such can potentially increase the interest for grid statistics. In the kick off meeting, the following topics were mentioned: ageing society, employment, research and development, climate change, energy, education, poverty and social exclusion. The project will choose, what case study to proceed with early 2013.

1. Production procedures for a harmonised European population grid, bottom-up approach (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/production-procedures-bottom-up)

2. Marja Tammilehto-Luode, Statistics Finland: Production processess for a harmonised European population grid (http://www.efgs.info/workshops/efgs-2012-prague-czech-republic/efgs-2012- conference/luode-presentation)

WP-1D Integration of population grid data

A summary of progress towards objectives and details for each task;

The efforts of the project in 2012 with producing production case studies have been partly based on population datasets for 2011. The efforts have not been merged into a first version of a GEOSTAT 1B population grid as planned in the application. The main reason to this is the absence of the definitive census data in many countries in 2012. The project consortium prioritised therefore producing guidelines for other European National Statistical Institutes to be followed when producing the grid data in 2013. A final GEOSTAT 1B grid dataset will be produced in 2013.

Guidelines for producing population grid data per country according to the bottom-up method are developed as mentioned under work package 1A to 1C. A letter requesting for data delivery from all NSIs is drafted and will be sent out early 2013.

WP-2 Data sharing and data policy

Sub task 2.1: Negotiations regarding the integration of additional variables.

The point of departure for the EU population grid dataset is the gross population. This task is concerned with efforts to clarify and discuss problems related to the introduction of more variables. The introduction of further variables is a question to be solved in agreement with the NSI’s who will have different dissemination policies that will have to be resolved in the development of a shared business model. A websurvey has been conducted, showing that most members of EFGS will publish their Population and Housing censuses befor mid 2013. Hence, it has been urgent to come up with some recommendations for additional variables, before each NSI decides on how they will present the results in their own ways.

As a result of the EFGS 2012 web survey, the project has drawn up a list of variables and statistical units that is to be recommended as standard and official grid statistics. This “open core data set” is further more also based upon a small selection of recommendations from UN on thematic maps for census atlases3.

3 pp. 155, United Nations (2008). Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses Revision 2. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Statistics Division. New York, 2008. ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/67/Rev.2 Statistical papers Series M No. 67/Rev.2

7 Documents to support this issue:

1. EFGS Standard for official grid statistics: (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/efgs-standard-for-official-statistics)

2. Presentation of results from the EFGS 2012 web survey: (http://www.efgs.info/websurveys/efgs-2012-websurvey/at_download/file)

Sub task 2.2: Outline for a shared business model

This task is concerned with the development of a proposal for a shared business modell. It is assumed that all NSI’s will provide their part of a dataset providing the spatial distribution of their gross population on km grids with no obligations attached.

The introduction of further variables will require a shared business model. This is based on previous discussions in connection with INSPIRE and the GEOSTAT ESSnet 1A project. The task force has discussed and proposed a common open licence model for European grid data sets. As a result of the EFGS 2012 web survey, core datasets for grid statistics will be recommended as standard for official grid statistics, ref. previous sub-task. For these core data sets for grid statistics a common open data licence has been elaborated.

A first version of a business model has been made, see annex for EFGS template for open data licence. This is intended as a first version for official grid statistics, and based upon the open data licence made by the National Land Survey of Finland.

1. EFGS open data license template: (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/efgs-open-data-license-template)

2. Sommer, Erik (2012) Market watch/Business report - Grid statistics Statistics Denmark, EFGS Consultant: (http://www.efgs.info/workshops/efgs-2012-prague-czech-republic/efgs-2012-conference/sommer- presentation)

Sub task 2.3: Outline for a distributed system of services to view, buy and download national/ bi- and multilateral datasets.

This issue was started as part of the GEOSTAT 1A project. This work will be resumed as a part of the tasks to be executed during the second year of the project.

Develop a concept for distribution system for the production of bi- and multilateral datasets. This system should be based on the results of the GEOSTAT 1A WP3 (infrastructure) and discussed and further developed in cooperation with the parties responsible for the GEOSTAT ESSnet 1B WP4.4 (the person responsible for contacts with the INSPIRE project). We have previously discussed the need for a distributed solution that can guarantee a harmonised dataset in cross border situations (to serve as a foundation for bi- and multilateral projects). (ref to WP 4 for maintenance of grid dataset after 2013).

8 Report in 2013

None, until now

WP-3 Project website

Sub task3.1: Continous maintenance and improvement of the EFGS website.

Continuous maintenance and improvements of the EFGS website. The website is the reference point for the promotion of European geocoded statistics and helps make the project results visible on the web. It is regularly updated with information from the project and from the scientific community, together with case studies on Geostatistics from EFGS members and beyond.

A new design for the web site has been developed. The Eurostat logo has been included on front page. All materials from EFGS 2012 conference in Prague has been uploaded. News about Map of the Month has been published. The GEOSTAT 1B project has been more visible on front page with an own prominent entrance. The number of visitors to the website has grown steadily. Most visitors come from European countries, national statistical institutes and research facilities. However, the last year, with more focus on global issues, more and more visitors comes from countries outside Europe.

WP-4 Exploitation, distribution and dissemination

Sub task 4.1: Closer relationship between the GEOSTAT project and the international Geostatistics community.

During 2012 the GEOSTAT partners have deepened the relationship between the GEOSTAT project and the international geostatistics community. The international geostatistics community includes academia and NSIs in- and outside the EU 27+ area. This collection of national states may be divided into two rough groups;

The first group consists of our immediate neighbours surrounding the EU territory that are interested in a harmonisation of their datasets with those of the GEOSTAT project.

The second group relates to the rest of the world as the international geostatistics Global community.

Already before the project started several NSIs agreed on being voluntary contributors to the GEOSTAT project. Being a voluntary contributor is about being willing to share knowledge and data with the project. In the last years EFGS conferences it has been noticed a higher presence of Eastern European countries. This is a good development and we hope that this development will continue as a result of having next EFGS conference in Sofia.

NSI’s, academia and key user communites have further been invited to discuss the idea of a more accurate Global bottom- up based system of point statistics. A provisional committee, consisting of representatives from the EFGS and the NSI Brasil will make the first move towards a Global meeting in the second half of 2014.

Sub task 4.2 Conferences and Workshops

9 A summary of progress towards objectives and details for each task;

4.2.1 GEOSTAT 1B project workshops

In the first year of the GEOSTAT 1B project there has been organised three workshops. Minutes have been made for all meetings and the presentations are stored. The Eurostat contact person has attended all meetings.

1. Workshop 1 February 2012, Oslo The purpose of this workshop was to make the participants aware of the Grant Agreement, discuss expectations and organisation of the project, agree on amendments (if needed) and to assess the quality and be aware of ways to improve existing population grids

2. Workshop 13-15th of June 2012, Oslo The objective of this workshop was to finalise the set of quality variables, to prepare training material that can be used by NSIs when generating population grids, to get more familiar with the EFGS.info website, to find out more about which additional statistical units and variables we can report on and to discuss a shared business model for data dissemination.

3. Project meeting in front of EFGS conference 24th October 2012, Prague, Czech Republic The purpose of this workshop was to give a status on the project and to inform the project partners what was expected until the end of 2012.

4.2.2 The 2012 The joint NSI and NMA GISCO workshop in March 2012

The GEOSTAT project was very visible at the joint NSI and NMA GISCO workshop organised in Luxemburg on the 8-9th of March 2012. A whole session (3) during the second day was dedicated to the GEOSTAT projects. The issue was elaborated through a series of presentations. The meeting informed about the coming activities of the GEOSTAT 1B project and gave an appeal to all NSIs to become voluntary data contributors to the GEOSTAT project. The meeting announced also the EFGS conference in Prague 2012.

4.2.4 The EFGS 2012 Prague conference

This years conference was held in Prague hosted by the Czech statistical Office from 24th to the 26th of October. The conference program consisted of a Keynote session, a set of Working sessions all focussing on production issues directly or indirectly related to the GEOSTAT project, and a closing session with a focus on the way forward.

The EFGS 2012 Prague meeting has been the fifth European Conference on Spatial Statistics organised by the EFGS. The conference was, in spite of the deepening economic crisis in Europe, attended by 70 geostatisticians mainly from the EU27+ NSI’s.

One of the most significant results for all parties involved was the fact that the Geostatistics community, through its representatives at the EFGS 2012 Prague conference agreed to accept a five year framework for geostatistical activities (see “The EFGS 2012 Prague Way Forward”), and the EFGS Prague initiative for establishing a taskforce for the integration of geography and statistics (See “The EFGS 2012 Prague Initiative”)

1. The official program and references to the conference: (http://www.efgs.info/workshops/efgs- conferences/efgs-2012-prague-czech-republic) or (http://www.czso.cz/efgs/efgs2012.nsf/i/home)

2. Lars H. Backer: “The EFGS 2012 Way forward” (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/the-efgs- 2012-way-forward)

3. Lars H. Backer: The EFGS 2012 Prague Initiative (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/the- efgs-2012-prague-initiative)

10 4. Lars H. Backer: The EFGS 2012 Prague conference A summary (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/the-efgs-2012-prague-conference-summary)

5. Arslan Ahmedov and Ola Nordbeck: An ideal way of integrating the spatial dimension into the statistical production chain - Does it exist? (http://www.efgs.info/workshops/efgs-2012-prague-czech- republic/efgs-2012-conference/ahmedov-presentation)

Sub task 4.3: Promotion material

The most important products are:

1. The Website The Website represents the largest single source of promotion material that has been produced for the GEOSTAT 1B project. For more information see work package 3.

2. The GEOSTAT 1B flyer We have produced and used the GEOSTAT 1B flyer on several occasions this year.

3. Posters

a. The EFGS story, planned for 2013.

b. Production flowchart, based on the production case studies for generating population grids, planned for 2013

c. GEOSTAT 1B poster, representing the European population grid dataset, planned for 2013

The most significant result is upgraded EFGS website and the GEOSTAT 1B flyer

1. The EFGS Website: (http://www.efgs.info/)

2. Vilni Verner Holst Bloch: “ The EFGS Flyer ” (http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B/geostat-1b/efgs-geostat- 1b-flyer)

Sub task 4.4: Presentations, posters and papers at conferences to reach potential users of the EU GEOSTAT dataset.

In addition to the EFGS website, the EFGS conference and the GISCO workshop as earlier mentioned the project disseminated their products at:

ESTGIS conference Pärnu, Estonia, 30th of November until the 1st of December 2012.

ESSnet workshop, Rome, Italy, 3-4 December 2012

Sub task 4.5: Monitoring the INSPIRE process and especially issues related to the GEOSTAT 1B project

11 The partners of the GEOSTAT project have during 2012 tried to clarify the aim of this task. In dialogue with Eurostat it was made clear that the project should look into what impact the finalisation of INSPIRE Annex 3 data specification will have on the production of population grids in the framework of GEOSTAT1B.

INSPIRE Annex 3 includes both Population distribution - demography package and the Statistical Units package. The GEOSTAT1B is concerned by both packages since Population distribution - demography package mainly handles the statistical values/indices and that these are attached to spatial objects defined in Statistical Units package (statistical grids).

Not applicable in 2012

Sub task 4.6: Road map for the continuation of EFGS and the work towards European population grids.

As referred to under the other tasks under work package 4 various efforts have been made in order to ensure the sustainability of GEOSTAT and the EFGS after GEOSTAT projects. The concern is that in many countries the 2011 Census has not established a permanent and sustainable infrastructure for the production of population grid statistics and that many of the investments made could be wasted in the long term if not prolonged. The project and the EFGS have drafted a road map towards a point based foundation for the ESS.

We have a general draft towards a long term roadmap to describe the task of designing, producing, implementing, using and testing the evolution of a point- based foundation for the ESS over a series of two year projects from and including the GEOSTAT 1A project to the implementation of Grid statistics in the EU 2020 round of national censuses. This should be further developed and elaborated over a series of iterations.

1. Lars H. Backer: “In search of a way forward for the EFGS”, “The EFGS 2012 Way forward” and “The EFGS 2012 Prague initiative”

2. Lars H. Backer: The GGIM: Notes towards a Vision; Towards the Integration of Geography and Statistics”

1. Vilni Holst Bloch : “The past and present of the EFGS project” (http://www.efgs.info/workshops/efgs- 2012-prague-czech-republic/efgs-2012-conference/the-past-and-present-of-the-efgs-project)

2. Lars H. Backer: “In search of a Vision” (http://www.efgs.info/workshops/efgs-2012-prague-czech- republic/efgs-2012-conference/backer-keynote)

3. Ekkehard Petri (Eurostat): “Towards a better integration of statistics and geography - an ESS strategy” (http://www.czso.cz/efgs/efgs2012.nsf/i/presentation_petri/$File/Eurostat_PETRI.pdf)

4. Lars H. Backer (The EFGS office):: “In search of a Way forward” (http://www.efgs.info/workshops/efgs-2012-prague-czech-republic/efgs-2012-conference/backer_in- search-of-the-way-forward)

Dissemination action towards the ESS

A list of the activities carried out during the reporting period for informing the ESS members on the results achieved.

12 Oslo, Norway, February 2012. Kick-off meeting Luxembourg, March 2012. GISCO WP meeting. Luxembourg, May 15-16th 2012. Workshop Oslo, Norway, June 2012. Workshop. Prague, Czech Republic, October 24-26th 2012. EFGS conference Pärnu, Estonia, November/December 30-1rst 2012. ESTGIS conference. Rome, Italy, December 3-4, ESSnet workshop

Publication of papers, presentations, abstracts, surveys, news and reports at the EFGS website : www.efgs.info For EFGS 2012 conference materials have also been published the website of CZSO: http://www.czso.cz/efgs/efgs2012.nsf/i/home .

Conclusion

The main results for this first year of the project is the methodology report for generating grid statistics based on micro-data. This will hopefully be well appreciated reference material for National Statistical Institutes (NSIs). The project prioritised also the work with defining additional variables in 2012, since a websurvey showed that most EFGS members are planning to publish their Population and Housing censuses befor mid 2013. It was therefore found to be important to come up with recommendations for additional variables and related confidentiality issues before the various NSI decide on how they will present the results.

In order to reach out to the all NSIs a letter has been drafted for informing them about the guidelines on the EFGS website as well as requesting data to be made available for the GEOSTAT project. The data is thereafter to be merged into the European grid net.

Work has started in order to come up with guidelines for NSIs using the hybrid and disaggregation approach. These guidelines are to be completed in 2013.

In 2012 some important measures have been made in order to make the website more attractive and it is now easier to access the information related to the GEOSTAT project. A technical annex related to this intermediary report is to be found at: http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B.

During 2012 the GEOSTAT partners have made contacts with the international geostatistics community including academia and NSIs in and outside Europe and have started a cooperation process.

In 2012 there has been four different meeting occasions for the GEOSTAT partners in form of two workshops in Oslo, the GISCO conference in Luxembourg and the EFGS conference in the Czech Republic. This has resulted in a close collaboration in the project and thanks to this good cooperation important results are already achieved after the first year of the project.

In order to ensure the sustainability of the project two documents have been produced and accepted by the participants at the EFGS 2012 conference: “EFGS 2012 Way Forward” and the “EFGS 2012 Prague initiative”. The latter is about establishing a EUROSTAT taskforce to further integration of geography and statistics.

In 2013 the project will continue the work that has been carried out this year, but will focus more on case studies, hybrid and disaggregation works, persuading more NSIs to take part in generating European gridded data.

13 Part B. REPORT ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ESSnet

1. Project management

A new project coordinator in the project has been a challenge, but with good assistance from other GEOSTAT 1B partners it was possible to continue the work based on the GEOSTAT 1A experiences. With other words, continuation in this type of project was proven to be important.

In the GISCO meeting in March 2012 the project partners met with other NSIs and it was made clear that there was a need for prioritising the development of guidelines for generating population grids. The project partners have since this meeting prioritised this task and are now proud to present a methodology report that can be used by various NSIs in 2013.

Challenges:

It has been problematic with the clear division of the bottom-up methodology and hybrid/top-down methodology. The direct consequences for the project has been the division of work package 1 into four work packages. This fine breakdown has made it difficult to have a good overview of the related tasks.

In order to deal with this issue work package 1A with title Testing and quality assessment was made to be the more than verifying the quality of existing Pan-European population grids. This task was modified to cover all hands on work by the project consortium including case studies and methodology development.

The work under work package 1B and 1C was changed to be more the work of the work package leaders and to give guidance to the work carried out under 1A

WP-1D will later on unify and harmonise population datasets from project partners and voluntary contributors.

Another problematic situation is the communication, since The Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (BNSI) has problems with taking part in telephone conferences due to technical problems. In order to deal with this matter and to have their important inputs to workpackage 1 and 4 we decided to move the third work shop from Oslo to Sofia, Bulgaria. The project consortium will then get a better insight into the work carried out by BNSI and assist them with the various tasks.

List of project meetings, dates and venues;

The conclusion of GEOSTAT 1A was that more physical meetings would facilitate the collaboration and it was therefore decided to have several workshops throughout the project. The following project meetings have taken place in 2012:

- Workshop 1: 8-9th of February 2012, Oslo, Norway - Workshop 2: 13-15th of June 2012, Oslo, Norway - Project meeting in front of EFGS conference 24th October 2012, Prague, Czech Republic

Project planning and status

In spite of the challenges with work package 1 and the paternity leave of the project coordinator the project is delivering according to the project plan. Some modifications to the milestones have been necessary though, but these have been approved by the project’s contact person in Eurostat, Ekkehard Petri. The changes were, that the milestones in 2012 were in October, but due to the paternity leave of the coordinator it was difficult to meet these deadlines and December was found to be more appropriate. The project was also supposed to publish grid maps for 2011 already in 2012, but the work with the censuses in many of the countries are still ongoing and it was therefore not relevant to produce population grids for some few countries, but to make a more consolidated effort in 2013.

14 The conclusion in the GISCO meeting in March 2012 made also the project to concentrate on the “bottom-up” methodology and some efforts on the “hybrid and top-down” methodology were therefore postponed.

In the kick-off meeting it was also agreed between the project group and Eurostat that regarding WP-1A the main contribution of the project will consist in providing assistance and/or test data to European disaggregation projects for quality evaluation purposes. According to Eurostat, advice on how to possibly improve disaggregation techniques based on national expertise is welcome but the project group is not expected to actually develop European disaggregation datasets.

The coordinators activities

The coordinator has tried to facilitate the work of the project by concentrating the activities of the partners to be just in front of -, during and after the workshops. This was agreed upon in the kick off meeting in February and has proven to function fairly well. This way of working has increased the work load on the work package leaders, but this has been in line with planned resources (man-months). There have been very few requests for amendments from the project partners and these amendments have not been more complicated than that the partner has been able to solve these issues directly with Ekkehard Petri. The project coordinator has been copied on these correspondences.

The project coordinator was unfortunately not able to participate at the ESSnet workshop in Rome, December 2012, since this was not planned for in 2012. A presentation was sent to the workshop sharing the GEOSTAT 1B experiences and it is also planned for to take part in next year’s workshop.

2. Deliverables

In order to access the most important deliverables of the project in 2012 go to the intermediate technical annexes: http://www.efgs.info/geostat/1B.

Find also cumulative list below with deliverables made during this reporting period, the data are published on the internet on the 21st of December 2012.

TABLE 1. DELIVERABLES

Deliverable Lead Delivery Delivere Actual / Comments name beneficiar date from d Forecast y Annex I Yes/No delivery date (proj. month) Testing and quality Statistics 12 No, Amendments will be carried assessment of PAN- Norway available out in 2013 European population online grids

Production Statistics 12 No, procedures for a Finland and available harmonised Statistics online European population Norway grid - bottom-up approach EFGS Standard for Statistics 12 No, official grid statistics Norway available v.1.0 online

15 EFGS open data Statistics 12 No, license template Finland and available Statistics online Norway

3. Status of the use of the resources

The following table is a very rough estimate on resources used so far in the project.

TABLE 2. RESOURCES (IN PERSON-MONTHS)

Work package WP0 WP1 WP2 WP3 WP4 TOTAL per Beneficiar y 1. Statistics Norway 2,5 4 1 1,5 2 11 2. Statistics Bulgaria 3 1 4 3. Czech Statistical 1 1,5 2,5 Office 4. Statistics Estonia 1 0,5 1,5 5. Statistics Finland 2,25 0,5 2,75 6. Statistics Portugal 0,5 0,5 1 TOTAL 2,5 11,75 1 1,5 6 22,75