Indicators of city development
The goal is to develop the city in a sustainable way and ensure a high quality of life for its residents. To achieve it, we will examine, among other things, the balance of youth migration, expenditure on culture and heritage, initiatives to educate young people or promote entrepreneurship, the number of investments in green-blue infrastructure, the degree of air pollution and, finally, the level of residents’ satisfaction with the services provided by the town hall.
These are examples of indicators from a whole list that the Białystok University of Technology has prepared for us. Cooperation between the city and the university in this regard was inaugurated by a seminar held a year ago. Let us recall what the idea behind the project was. As we reported, in the project “Hajnówka ReNewal – Green Transformation” we have assumed four areas of city development. These are:
- Environment and climate
- Integration and identity
- Do business in Hajnówka
- New city centre.
In order to achieve these development goals, we had to find out what specifically we had to monitor, what indicators. Firstly, it was a matter of selecting a set of data that would help us to prepare for the challenges faced by cities in uncertain times, and to identify risks more quickly. Which, in the long run, serves to reduce the risk of further loss of socio-economic functions. Secondly, it is worth introducing the habit of analysis into the daily functioning of the city. The fact is that monitoring of development indicators in small and medium-sized cities is rare. The national administration lacks tried-and-tested models and experience, and the degree of use of collected data in decision-making processes is negligible. Therefore, the aim of the cooperation with the Białystok University of Technology was to develop tailor-made solutions.
Fot. Monika Aleksiejuk
A meeting to summarise the activities undertaken so far was held on Friday (12.01).
– For cities that have no experience in collecting data and using them in decision-making processes, it is advisable to limit the list of indicators to begin with, in order to learn how to use them first.
So what is the list of indicators prepared for Hajnówka? First of all, the objectives of sustainable development of the city and ensuring a high quality of life for the inhabitants have been specified. The implementation of these goals will take place in the following areas/categories:
- Social governance
- Economic governance
- Environmental order
- Spatial governance
- Institutional-political governance.
A list of indicators has been assigned to each category. For instance, the social order includes components such as the migration balance of 15-39 year olds per 1,000 people, social organisations per 1,000 inhabitants or the number of housing allowances granted per 1,000 inhabitants.
In economic governance, in turn, indicators include, for example, the number of activities encouraging young people aged 15-29 to set up their own businesses, the number of educational and cultural activities to develop tourism or a survey on brand recognition of the city of Hajnówka (once every three years).
Environmental governance consists of indicators such as:
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Number of green-blue infrastructure initiatives/investments implemented
- Number of households where the heating system has been replaced as part of low emission reduction programmes per 1 km2
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Survey of the concentration of fine particulate matter.
It is worth emphasising that the indicators indicated by the experts from the Białystok University of Technology are based on reliable data sources, e.g. the Central Statistical Office, and their introduction is realistic. They are meant to show the process that is the development of the city, indicating first the deficiencies and then the good solutions.
