Environmental information from censuses and surveys

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Sheshinski, Ruth H.^{; 1}

Affiliations: Central Bureau of Statistics Israel, Hakirya Romena, P.O. Box 13015, 91130 Jerusalem, Israel

Note: [1] This paper was first presented to the Joint ECE/EUROSTAT Work Session on Methodological Issues of Environment Statistics in September, 1997 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Abstract: Censuses and household surveys serve to update the demographic and socio-economic data bases. As a source of reliable data, collected in the field, they may serve also to enrich the knowledge in environmental subjects. The extent to which we may be able to exploit censuses and surveys for the “environment exploration” depends heavily on the content of the specific data collection. This paper will deal with the possible use of the Israeli population and household census, and with the agriculture survey. Two main assets which are built into our census are: 1. The urban area is fully digitized, to the level of the building. This Geographical Information System (GIS) opens up a whole range of applications of linking environmental occurrences and facts with the underlying information that we have from censuses and surveys, using both coordinates and addresses, by various geographic areas. 2. Every individual is given an identification number at birth (or entrance to the country), by the ministry of interior, and this ID appears in every form the individual fills out or license that he may receive. This enables us to link records from environmental occurrences with the census data, and opens a range of applications where individuals involved in environmental occurrences (as accidents, driver licenses, hunting permissions, etc.), may be matched with their socio-economic status from the census. The socio-economic status of an area does not change rapidly, and therefore may be used in regard with environmental statistics for a relatively long period, between censuses. It is possible to learn from the census about the usage of land in urban areas, the density of building coverage in an area, the type of building: residential, commercial, industrial, public, the type of flat: vacant, occupied and if occupied – are they residential or for business and commerce, the density of the population by various geographic areas. An important usage of census data is to construct indicators, per person or per household, for an environmental occurrence, for a certain geographical area. It is possible to construct the borders of any area almost freely, as we have the GIS to the level of buildings. The GIS for urban areas has the capability of matching environmental observations with the characteristics of the underlying population, and their socio-economical factors. These factors emerge from different fields of interest, as income, number of cars per household or per area, durable goods in the household, water heating system, etc. These factors do not change very fast, and may be used without having to worry too much about updating the data, if we accumulate the data over large enough areas. For example, in some topics of environmental research it may be of interest to define the “age” of the urban neighborhood, using the questions (in the sample of 20% taken with the census) related to the year of construction of the residential buildings, or to learn about the year the family moved to the building, which will throw some light on the question of population migration of the family (or person) to the current address, also indicating from where the family (person) moved. We may get a picture of aging areas versus new ones, or preferable areas to abandoned ones (migration to … and from …). The question on durable goods may be used in connection to environmental subjects by learning about the rate of cars per family, availability of solar heating and air conditioners in the households, especially looking into the proportion of solar heaters which may spread some light on alternative energy sources and usage. The Agricultural Survey may be used to determine agricultural areas (size of the rural as opposed to the urban area), and destination of the land (agriculture, farming, buildings, silos, parks, etc.). The agriculture survey serves as a source of extracting environmental data. Some questions in the survey make it possible to define the variety of growth and live stock in the farms, communal farms as opposed to small private farming, land usage, use of pesticides, the extent of using treated water (secondary use) in the farms, etc.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1997-14406

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 397-406, 1997