Mapping of transport sensitive areas - Task 3.1:Review on spatial apporaches, mapping examples and available data sets at EU level

SummaryThe overall aim of the ASSET (ASsessing SEnsitiveness to Transport) project is to develop the scientific and methodological capabilities in order to support implementation of European policies aiming at balancing the environmental protection of Sensitive Areas. WP3 Mapping transport and related sensitive areas in the EU deals with the operationalisation of the criteria for transport sensitivity and impacts, as defined in D2. This paper reports the findings of task 3.1, a Review on spatial approaches, mapping examples and available data sets at EU level. The outcomes of this task will guide further work in WP3, targeted at mapping of the proposed criteria and indicators on transport sensitive areas (TSA's) and impacts from transport activities at pan European level, utilising existing maps and statistical data. The objective of this deliverable is to provide an overview of existing mapping and assessment approaches and to give examples of these in order to provide best practice examples and to guide the ongoing work within ASSET. Furthermore, it provides an overview of existing geographical data sets and their accessibility and applicability with respect to pan European mapping. The first step was a structured literature survey of peer reviewed publications within core topics of impacts and sensitiveness to transport as outlined in deliverable D1 and the draft version of deliverable D2. The search for literature provided more than 1300 articles inside these topics. A critical review of these publications according to their relevance with respect to the criteria defined in ASSET and the mapping presented greatly reduced their number to 44. A few supplementary articles have been added from citations found. These 44 made up the final selection and have undergone an in-depth review, documented in an evaluation spreadsheet, listing the criteria addressed for each article. Most of the approaches found that way where in-depth scientific studies, mainly due to the fact that selection criteria have been peer-reviewed publications. The mappings displayed thus in most cases have the character of narrow studies and not broad integrated approaches.For selection of best practise examples, the articles have been supplemented further with other publications, i.e. reports and articles provided by the partners or found via search on the Worldwide Web. This search resulted in a lot of publications with a broader aim and examples of wall to wall pan European mapping. A selection is presented in this report, displaying many different kinds of maps and their application within the topics of ASSET. Maps thus are a strong way of communicating results to stakeholders and the public.The scan and retrieval of data available for pan European mapping exercises revealed a considerable number of high resolution maps suitable for production of map examples. The results have been documented as a spreadsheet, containing essential sets of metadata. Furthermore, it could be realised that the number and quality of map data available is constantly increasing, both with regard to coverage of existing maps and the release of new maps or maps harmonised from national mapping tasks. Main data gaps seem to be within data on meteorology and air quality, as they only exist in rather coarse spatial resolution. Finally, the visual quality of many of the map examples found is not satisfying, and this has indeed to be an area of concern, as it greatly influences the communicative value of maps. The potential for miss-interpretation by the reader or manipulation is obvious, and the map producer as well as the reader will have to keep these in mind.