All the parties involved in urban development are provided with a measurement and learning instrument at the strategic level. The aim of the city monitor is to support the strategic policy of all the parties involved in urban policy in general and of the municipal council in particular, by providing input for planning and policy programmes. Ideally the city monitor should be managed by the municipal council.

The city monitor is a policy instrument for the 13 Flemish cities, for Flemish urban policy and for everyone involved in cities. The city monitor reveals the quality of life in cities and how sustainably they are developing. The city monitor comprises 188 indicators. Approximately two thirds of these already contain data. For the others there is an indication of how they will be filled in.

188 indicators were selected on the basis of a solid vision on the quality of life and sustainable development in the city/urban area. Meetings of experts were organised for the selection of the indicators (co-design). The indicators were accompanied by data (existing data, a search for new data, surveys and questionnaires). The process was intensively supervised by a key steering group (clients and cabinets and a steering group (clients and cities).

There is a city monitor at the Flemish level and 1 city edition for each of the 13 cities. In this way each city has access to accurate data to measure the quality of life and sustainable development in the city/urban area. The measurements will be regularly updated.

The city monitor is an instrument for everyone active in the city. The monitor serves to contribute to the debate on the city. In particular, the monitor serves as an input for the policy of the municipal council.

The project was commissioned by the Flemish Community and carried out by the Centre for Sustainable Development (University of Ghent) and the Department Of Commercial Sciences and Administration (Ghent Institute of Higher Education). A key steering group (clients and cabinets) and a steering group (clients and cities) supervised the process. Dozens of experts, including the Planning and Statistics Administration of the Flemish Community, cooperated. The city monitor was presented on 13 June 2004. The city editions were presented in the period December 2004 – April 2005.

Urban Policy Project - Ministry of the Flemish Community
Ms Linda Boudry, tel. +32 25534028

01/01/2001

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration

Quality of life