D5 Annex report WP 3: ETIS Database methodology ... - ETIS plus

D5 Annex WP 3: DATABASE METHODOLOGY AND DATABASE USER
MANUAL – FREIGHT TRANSPORT DEMAND
commodity combinations that did not match with any records in the MDS­Transmodal look­up
tables. For these, an iterative process was developed so that mode factors could be obtained
from similar countries or similar commodities or both.
Problems also arise from the inclusion of "Departements d'outre­mer" or "DOM", i.e. the West
Indies as regions of France. Users of the database need to be aware that flows into these
departements do not represent short sea shipping.
The NUTS3 Departements were aggregated to NUTS2 Regions, reducing the total number of
sub­national zones from 100 (96 excluding DOM) to 21 mainland regions plus Corse,
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, and Reunion.
· Spain
The situation regarding Spain is somewhat similar to France. Again, the source was a Customs
& Excise database, containing regional detail for 50 zones in Spain ("Provincias"). This is
equivalent to NUTS3. The database was dispatched on seven magnetic tapes, and amounted to
over 700 megabytes of data.
A database program was developed by MDS­Transmodal to read the files extracted from the
tapes, and to compress the data by lifting out the key fields of data. The commodity
classification system used was the standard 8 digit Harmonised System, as used within Comext
as well as the majority of countries worldwide. Again, correlation tables were used to convert
this to 2 digit SITC.
Country codes were again based on the standard Eurostat practice.
As before, the estimated unitised/non­unitised split was introduced, using the factors already
calculated by MDS­Transmodal at the national level.
The main problem has been the need to compress vast quantities of data to a few megabytes,
and the relative unreliabity of using tapes as a storage media. As with the French database,
offshore regions such as the Canarias, Baleares, Ceuta and Melilla have required special
treatment.
The 52 NUTS3 Provincias (including Ceuta and Melilla) have been aggregated to 15 mainland
NUTS2 Communidades Autonomas plus Baleares, Canarias, and Ceuta­y­Melilla.
· The UK
The UK experience is somewhat different to Spain and France. UK trade statistics have never
recorded regional data such as UK country of origin or destination. The main source of regional
data has been the Origin and Destination of International Transport (ODIT) survey, carried out
by the UK's Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). This is based
upon a sampling technique, and is only carried out every five years (1986, 1991, 1996).
Document2
27 May 2004
137