Territorial Cohesion Indicators for Sustainability and Economic Breakthrough

The analysis of large internal disparities between metropolitan regions and rural regions of European Union NUTS III level shows relevance of territorial cohesion Territorial cohesion requires integrated approach in regional planning and regional development. Therefore assessing progress towards territorial cohesion is a demanding task. In this report we are examining indicators of territorial cohesion using four themes that are usually associated with territorial cohesion - environmental resource management, spatial development, social cohesion and quality of life and economic competitiveness and resilience. These themes are common in five case study territories with significant internal disparities and dominance of metropolitan areas that have been investigated by ESPON project 'Key Indicators for Territorial Cohesion and Spatial Planning' (KITCASP) These territories are Latvia, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and Basque country in Spain. In this article we are performing detailed analysis of key indicators of territorial cohesion and spatial planning for Latvia. In European context Latvia is a country which is experiencing particularly high levels of depopulation, increased poverty risk and social inequalities. Latvia's decisive austerity policies have stabilized economy and stimulated growth in export and industry sector, National Development Plan of Latvia for 2014-2020 (approved by the Parliament in 2012) is based on growth of the national economy, growth for region and human securitability to achieve economic breakthrough. To select key indicators, we have filtered out five core and three additional indicators for each theme of territorial cohesion using stakeholder driven bottom-up approach in combination of top-down approach where indicators are contrasted with existing indicators in relevant data bases and ESPON projects. A common thread for all three key policy drivers of Latvia are post-recession economic breakthrough, demographic challenges and sustainability. In this report we are presenting the rationale behind selected indicators in order to demonstrate their practical application in policy making. In doing so we point to data gaps that exist in measuring territorial cohesion in European, national and regional scale. .