Land use in urban settlements, 1 January 1999

On the basis of information on buildings and properties in the Ground Property, Address and Building Register (GAB), and map data for roads, railways and bodies of water, simple first-generation register-based statistics have been prepared for the first time to show the status of built areas and areas close to buildings in urban settlements. Information on land use in urban settlements is a supplement to other regional statistics.

Largest share for housing purposes in Stavanger/Sandnes

Of the altogether 19 urban settlements with at least 20 000 inhabitants, Stavanger/Sandnes has by far the largest share of urban area used for housing and holiday homes and mixed residential/business use, with 46 per cent. For the other 19 major urban settlements, the corresponding share is between 28 and 39 per cent. Transport areas, that is roads, railways and directly associated service facilities lay claim to between 13 and 19 per cent of the urban settlement areas. Areas for businesses and public administration amounted to between 3 and 10 per cent of the land use, while areas for institutions and public services accounted for between 1 and 4 per cent. The largest share of business and service areas is in Stavanger/Sandnes and Tromsø, both with 10 per cent of the urban settlement area used for this purpose.

Most open areas in Sandefjord

The data sources on which the statistics are based do not specify the type of land use or cover on open areas. However, it is reasonable to assume that these are agricultural and forest areas, large warehouses, quays, industrial sites, parking places, in addition to parks and playgrounds. Open areas and freshwater lakes make up between 16 and 49 per cent of the total urban settlement area in the 19 largest urban settlements. Sandefjord scores the highest on the share of open land, followed by Arendal, Tønsberg and Trondheim. No further analysis has been done at this time on whether or not these open areas represent any potentially important building areas.

Parcels, calculation of area, data sources and uncertainty

A building parcel is the area of the buildings footprint and the buildings adjacent influence area the site. The parcel area, and use of this land is calculated on the basis of data about the building and property in the GAB, and information about business activities in the form of an industrial code from the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises.

Unbuilt/open areas show up as a residual group when the area of building parcels, roads, railways and freshwater lakes is subtracted from the total urban settlement area.

The figures are associated with some uncertainty. The uncertainty in the register-based land use figures are due first and foremost to varying quality of the building and property information in the GAB. Statistics Norway is now working to improve the current data sources and expand the data basis of the statistics.

Tables:

• Table 1 Land Use in Urban Settlements with 20 000 inhabitants or more per 1 January 1999. Per cent*