Land use in urban settlements, 1 January 1999

These are results from the use of a recently developed method for calculation of access to open areas. The result is a part of a comprehensive system of environmental targets and result control that is currently being established by the Norwegian civil administration.

Calculated for the first time

According to the governmental white paper (Stortingsmelding nr 24, 2000-2001) it is established as a strategic target that the Norwegian population shall have the possibility to perform active outdoor recreation for improvement of health and well being in the neighbourhood areas and in the nature in general. Statistics Norway has developed a preliminary and practical statistical approach in order to produce figures that can measure status and changes for the agreed indicator. By using administrative registers and a geographical information system (GIS), it is possible to calculate the part of dwellings, schools, and kindergartens that are located in the vicinity of open areas. For the first time such calculations have been done for the whole country.

Lowest access for the kindergartens in Oslo

The preliminary results for 1999 reveal that 89 per cent of all kindergartens, 87 percent of all schools, 70 percent of all blocks of flats and 85 percent of all single family houses were located with safe access to near by playgrounds and recreation areas (areas of at least 0.5 hectares and within a distance of 200 metres with no large streets occurring as barriers). There are however regional variations. Kindergartens and schools for instance in Oslo and in the South-Western part of the country, are less favourably located concerning access to nearby areas for recreation than the average for the remaining counties (table 1). As an example, the geographical basis for calculation of access in central parts of Oslo is illustrated in the figure.

Many also have nearby larger areas for recreation

The same method is also used to calculate the access to larger areas for recreation (at least 20 hectares and within a distance of 500 metres). Preliminary figures indicate that 84 percent of all kindergartens, 83 percent of all schools, 64 percent of all blocks of flats and 87 per cent of all single family houses were located with access to such areas.

More information about statistics or methodology can be found in SSB Rapporter 2001/41 (in Norwegian only), or by contacting: erik.engelien@ssb.no , tel. +47 62 88 52 93 or per.schoning@ssb.no , tel. +47 62 88 54 69.