Sustainability indicators of the City of Prague

(the text below is based on the chapter Sustainability indicators of the City of Prague published in yearbook Prague Environment 2004)

Sustainability indicators make the evaluation of progress towards sustainable development easier, enable to make benchmarking to recommended values and legal limits, and to compare states, regions, and cities with each other; enable to set the development objectives, and to evaluate effectiveness of resources spent.

The indicators are based on principles of sustainable development, which encompass not merely environmental protection but also reinforcement of local self-government, deepening of democracy, equality, and social justice, supplies to local demands at the local level, protection of cultural heritage, harmonisation of economic development and exploitation of natural resources, etc.

Many global and European initiatives (ICLEI, WHO, REC, for example) work on the creation of suitable sets of indicators and their implementation not only at national and regional levels yet also at the local levels, they also form parts of research programmes of the European Union.

 

The City of Prague and Sustainability indicators

In 1998 Prague got involved in the Project “Cities Environment Report on Internet – CEROI”. Within the framework of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) who supports the Project a set of indicators for the urban level was developed as well. A part of these indicators (30) was marked as crucial indicators so-called core set. Indicators appropriate to Prague were compiled and are presented here, of which mostly environmental indicators were selected. The indicator selection also reflects environmental priorities of the Strategic Plan of the City of Prague.

The overview gives indicators, which express environmental stress (exploitation of natural resources, emissions, …), indicators referring to the status of the environment, furthermore indicators of the influence and impacts of the status of the environment namely on human health, and indicators of social response to the status of the environment.

The project of “Towards local sustainable profile – European Common Indicators” is a result of the cooperation of the European Commission (General Directorate for the Environment), European Environmental Agency, and the Expert Group for Urban Environment and was formed on the basis of consultancies with numerous European municipalities.
The initiative was introduced by Margot Wallström, Member of Commission for the Environment, at the 3^rd European Conference of Sustainable Cities, which was held in February 2000. The Project was terminated following its two-year test period in February 2003. In the test phase proposed indicators were selected and confirmed and methodologies for the monitoring and compilations of indicators were made further exact.
The system of indicators consists of a relatively small number of ten integrated indicators and one umbrella indicator (environmental trace), which reflect joint effects of environmental, economic, and social aspects. These, so-called headline indicators may be supplemented by further local, national, and field indicators. The indicators are closely related to priorities of the Sub-Programme of the Sixth Action Programme for the Environment in Europe “Thematic Strategy for Urban Environment”. Thus the system of indicators represents an instrument for the decision-making and for dissemination of information on best available techniques for sustainable development at local level.

 

The following headline indicators were selected as the European common indicators:

1. Average satisfaction with the local community life;
2. CO₂ emissions per capita;
3. Percentage of trips by motorized private transport;
4. Percentage of population living within 300 m from public greenery areas > 5,000 m²;
5. Number of days when the PM₁₀ limit value was exceeded;
6. Percentage of children travelling to school by car;
7. Percentage of enterprises with environmental management system certification of total enterprises;
8. Percentage of population exposed to noise level L_night > 55 dB(A);
9. Percentage of protected areas;
10. Percentage of consumers purchasing “sustainable products”.

In 2004 the following municipalities and regions of the Czech Republic were involved in the Project “Towards a local sustainability profile – European common indicators“ as follows: Krnov, Hradec Králové, Svitavy, Vsetín, Záhoran. Introduction of local indicators in the Czech cities and municipalities has been supported by the Team Initiative for Local Sustainable Development (Timur), http://www.timur.cz. Timur is an association of non-government, non-profit organisations and individuals and its core activity is just the monitoring of sustainability indicators, quality of life and environmental quality at local level.

 

Tab. - Sustainability Indicators of the City of Prague

Indicator	Unit	Value Year 2000	Value Year 2001	Value Year 2002	Value Year 2003	Source	Note
Annual electricity consumption per capita	MWh/person/year	9,17	9,59	9,76	10,30	ČSÚ, comp. MHMP
Annual vehicle-kilometres travelled per capita	thous.vehicle-km	4,64	4,85	5,04	5,16	ÚDI, comp. MHMP
Totalnumber of vehicles per capita	number/capita	0,63	0,65	0,67	0,67	ÚDI
Transport modes – bicycle	% of trips	.	2	.	.	ÚDI
– private vehicle		.	43	.	.		common European indicator
Air emissions NOx	tonnes/capita/year	0,015	0,019	0,018	0,019	ČHMÚ, ATEM, comp. MHMP	Since 2001 mobile source emissions have been calculated by means of a new methodology. The application of the new methodology in 2002 on small stationary sources, using the data of Census 2001, caused a relatively significant annual decrease in small source emissions.
Air emissions SO2	tonnes/capita/year	0,0029	0,0030	0,0022	0,0022	ČHMÚ, comp. MHMP
Average water consumption	l/day/capita.	143,3	137,9	134,7	136,6	PVK, ČSÚ, comp. MHMP	CEROI Core set
Waste production – total amount of waste produced	tones/capita/year	2,7	2,2	3,2	2,9	VÚV TGM, MHMP comp. MHMP	CEROI Core set
Percentage of solid waste disposed to controlled landfills	%	11	10	16	11	VÚV TGM, MHMP comp. MHMP	.
Percentage of reused, regenerated or recycled waste		.	.	36	31
Percentage of waste incinerated		5	9	5	6
Noise – percentace of population exposed to noise	%	.	23	.			common European indicator from road traffic
Water quality of surface watercourses	BOD (mgO2/l); P total (µg/l) N as NO3 (mg/l)	3,41 0,20 3,01	1,74 0,18 3,17	2,14 0,15 3,68	2,53 0,14 2,86	ČHMÚ	Hydrometric profile at the Vltava River Podolí
Life expectancy at birth	years	73,29 males	73,58 males	73,71 males	73,68 males	ČSÚ
		79,03 females	79,03 females	78,94 females	79,15 females
The number of respiratory diseases hospital admissions per 1000 inhabitants	Number per 1000 inhabitants	14,7	14,8	15,3		ÚZIS	Hospital admissions are surveyed
Percentage of inhabitants connected to the public sewage system	%	99,3	99,4	99,2	99,6	ČSÚ	CEROI Core set Percentage of inhabitants is surveyed
Percentage of wastewater treated	%	100	100	.	100	ČSÚ	CEROI Core set Water discharged into sewerage systems, excl. rainwater
Wastewater treatment – perecentage of BOD removed	%	93,7	93,0	.		PVK, ČOV, comp. MHMP
Reallocation of land use – newly acquired lands of the City	km2	0	0	0	0	ČÚZK, comp. MHMP
Area of protected areas as percenage of the City total area	%	4,3	4,3	4,3	4,3	MHMP, ÚRM, IMIP	common European indicator protected areas
		19,7	19,7	19,7	19,7		natural parks area includes protected areas located inside
Number of marked bicycle routes	number	19	.	22	27	MHMP, ÚDI
Reduction in the amount of landfilled waste	%	7	28	.	.	VÚV TGM, MHMP comp. MHMP

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Information sources:

Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe
www.reccr.cz/projektys/indikator/indikator.html

Team Initiative for Local Sustainable Development (Timur)
www.timur.cz

CEROI – Cities environment reports on the Internet
www.ceroi.net

Indicators for the Cities21 pilot project
www.cities21.com/cities21/index.htm

European Environment Agency
www.eea.eu.int