Jerker Mostrom (Statistics Sweden)
Statistics Sweden adopted the use of Earth Observation data already in 2005 for release of official statistics on urban green space. Several iterations of improvements over the years have resulted in more efficient methods and improved quality but also growing amounts of data. Through a unique collaboration between a number of Swedish government agencies (including Statistics Sweden), a new national high-resolution land cover data product has recently been launched. For the first time, this land cover data product forms the basis of a new round of urban green space statistics, allowing a far better coverage of urban areas and reducing the cost of data collection. However, mapping the urban land cover is only the first step in the production of green space statistics. To inform policy and to retrieve relevant measures for monitoring (SDGs and national environmental objectives), additional data have to be added to characterize the qualities and properties of the green spaces in terms of accessibility, ownership and vegetation. The production of green space statistics is one of the most demanding computation exercises conducted within Statistics Sweden, in terms of data processing and data integration. The presentation outlines the elements of the method and discusses some of the challenges encountered when stacking large volumes of data into on consistent production chain. Keywords: Urban green space, Earth Observation, data integration.