Kilometre per square kilometre is an SI derived unit of reciprocal length used for measurement of density of a linear feature in an area. It is used to measure, for example, drainage density [1] or road density (i.e. kilometres of road per square kilometre of land). [2]
In the European Union, kilometre per square kilometre is the unit of measure of transport network density.
According to Europa.eu,
Despite having only a small motorway network (91 km), the island of Malta reported the highest motorway network density among all regions of the EU.
Usually, the densest motorway networks are found around capital cities and other big cities, in large industrial conurbations and around major seaports.
The regions with the higher motorway density are:
Many cities are rounded by a motorway ring, so the density metric is dependent on the size of the city:
EU-15 had 48.3 km of railways per 1,000 square kilometres in 2000), more than in the United States (30.6 km/1000 km² in 1999, including Alaska and Hawaii and inland waters) but less than in Japan (53.5 km/1000 km² in 1999). [4]
For rail networks, in Europe, the highest network density can be found in the Czech Republic, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany (above 100 km/1000 km²), followed by the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and Poland (65–86 km/1000 km²). At the lower end of the range are Turkey, Norway, Finland and Greece, with values of 20 km/1000 km² and below. [5]
The Netherlands is both a very densely populated and a highly developed country in which transport is a key factor of the economy. Correspondingly it has a very dense and modern infrastructure, facilitating transport with road, rail, air and water networks. In its Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-2015, the World Economic Forum ranked the Dutch transport infrastructure fourth in the world.
The economy of the Netherlands is the 17th largest in the world in 2021 according to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Its GDP per capita was estimated at $57,101 in the fiscal year 2019/20, which makes it one of the highest-earning nations in the world. Between 1996 and 2000, annual economic growth (GDP) averaged over 4%, well above the European average of 2.5% at the time. Growth slowed considerably in 2001–05 as part of the early 2000s recession. The years 2006 and 2007 however showed economic growth of 3-4% per annum. The Dutch economy was hit considerably by the financial crisis of 2007–2008, and the ensuing European sovereign-debt crisis.
Liguria is a region of north-western Italy; its capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennines mountain range and is roughly coextensive with the former territory of the Republic of Genoa. Liguria is bordered by France to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It rests on the Ligurian Sea, and has a population of 1,557,533. The region is part of the Alps–Mediterranean Euroregion.
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol is an autonomous region of Italy, located in the northern part of the country. The region has a population of 1.1 million, of whom 62% speak Italian as their mother tongue, 30% speak South Tyrolean German and several foreign languages are spoken by immigrant communities. Since the 1970s, most legislative and administrative powers have been transferred to the two self-governing provinces that make up the region: the Province of Trento, commonly known as Trentino, and the Province of Bolzano, commonly known as South Tyrol.
Friuli Venezia Giulia is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, Adriatic Sea.
Marche is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches. The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the north, Tuscany to the west, Umbria to the southwest, Abruzzo and Lazio to the south and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Except for river valleys and the often very narrow coastal strip, the land is hilly.
The economy of the European Union is the joint economy of the member states of the European Union (EU). It is the second largest economy in the world in nominal terms, after the United States, and the third one in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, after China and the United States. The European Union's GDP was estimated to be around $17.1 trillion (nominal) in 2020, representing around 1/6 of the global economy.
In the NUTS codes of the Netherlands (NL), the three levels are:
Insular Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. Insular Italy encompasses two of the country's 20 regions: Sardinia and Sicily.
The development regions of Romania refer to the eight regional divisions created in Romania in 1998 in order to better co-ordinate regional development as Romania progressed towards accession to the European Union (EU). The development regions correspond to NUTS II-level divisions in EU member states. Despite becoming increasingly significant in regional development projects, Romania's development regions do not actually have an administrative status and do not have a legislative or executive council or government. Rather, they serve a function for allocating EU PHARE funds for regional development, as well as for collection of regional statistics. They also co-ordinate a range of regional development projects and became members of the Committee of the Regions when Romania joined the EU on January 1, 2007.
Metric units are units based on the metre, gram or second and decimal multiples or sub-multiples of these. The most widely used examples are the units of the International System of Units (SI). By extension they include units of electromagnetism from the CGS and SI units systems, and other units for which use of SI prefixes has become the norm. Other unit systems using metric units include:
Transport in the European Union is a shared competence of the Union and its member states. The European Commission includes a Commissioner for Transport, currently Adina Ioana Vălean. Since 2012, the Commission also includes a Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport which develops EU policies in the transport sector and manages funding for Trans-European Networks and technological development and innovation, worth €850 million yearly for the period 2000–2006.
The demographics of the European Union show a highly populated, culturally diverse union of 27 member states. As of 1 January 2021, the population of the EU is about 447 million people.
Fraternité 2020 (F2020) was a European Citizens' Initiative initiated at the Young European Citizens' Convention, Cluny 2010. The convention was awarded French national winner of the European Charlemagne Youth Prize in 2011. F2020's objective was to enhance EU exchange programmes such as Erasmus or the European Voluntary Service (EVS) to contribute to a united Europe based on solidarity among citizens. It was declared Europe's very first ECI on May 9, 2012, and boasts registration number ECI(2012)000001 in the Commission's ECI database. To be successful, it needed to collect 1 million signatures before November 1, 2013. This target was not reached. The number of signatures actually collected was 71,057.
The Ionian Islands Region is the smallest by area of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece located in the Ionian Sea. It comprises all the Ionian Islands except Kythera, which, although historically part of the island group, was separated and integrated to the Attica Region.
Many Europeans struggle to find affordable housing. There is a shortage of energy-efficient homes in Europe, the issue is especially bad in many urban areas, where 70% of the EU's population lives. Lack of affordable housing impairs the quality of life for many people. Long commutes reduce quality for life and increase carbon emissions for people travelling by car. Lack of high-quality housing increases the social divide, causing public health problems, poor public safety, lack of workers in central locations, inefficient labour markets and other issues. Almost half of all European residential buildings were constructed pre-1970 when energy consumption in materials, standards and techniques was not considered. The European Commission found that 75% of buildings and housing need to be made more energy-efficient to meet climate goals. Zumtobel Group, an Austrian lighting company is researching more efficient lighting and light management to use lighting systems only when needed. In 2019, the European Investment Bank approved loans to broaden the company's research into connecting lighting to digital services. In both Sweden and Poland, there is a is dramatically increasing demand for affordable housing in mid-size cities. Sweden is building thousands of affordable rental homes with near-zero energy use and the highest efficiency standards, the European Investment Bank approved a nearly €300 million loan in September 2019 to support this work. In the Polish city of Poznań, many residents do not qualify for city-supported affordable housing due to their high incomes but are unable to buy a home in the regular market because of low credit rating. The city and a local housing company began a project for these residents to build more than 1 000 flats that also have a kindergarten, day-care centre, a playground and parking spaces for people with disabilities. The European Investment Bank provided a €34 million loan for this project. In 2015, more than 4 out of every 10 persons (42.0%) in the EU-28 lived in flats, close to one quarter (24.1%) in semi-detached houses and one third (33.3%) in detached houses The proportion of people living in flats was highest, among the EU Member States, in Spain (65.9%), Latvia (65.0%) and Estonia (62.6%), while the highest proportions of people living in semi-detached houses were reported in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland (51.6%); these were the only Member States where more than half of the population lived in a semi-detached house. The share of people living in detached houses peaked in Croatia (73.4%), Slovenia (65.1%), Hungary (62.1%) and Romania (60.1%); Serbia (66.1%) and Norway (61.2%) also reported that more than 6 out of every 10 persons in of their population were living in detached houses.
With 139,000 km of public roads, the Netherlands has one of the most dense road networks in the world – much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium. In 2013, 5,191 km were national roads, 7,778 km were provincial roads, and 125,230 km were municipality and other roads. Dutch roads include 3,530 km of motorways and expressways, and with a motorway density of 64 kilometres per 1,000 km2, the country also has one of the densest motorway networks in the world. In Dutch a motorway is called "autosnelweg" or simply "snelweg"; other expressways are just called "autoweg". According to a 2004 estimate, some 12,500 km of road remain as yet unpaved.
With 139,000 km of public roads, the Netherlands has one of the most dense road networks in the world – much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium. In 2019, the World Economic Forum also ranked the quality of Dutch road infrastructure as the best in Europe, and second only to Singapore, out of 141 countries in the world – bypassing even the famous German roads with a 6.4 versus 5.3 score on a 7‑point scale used.