Geographies of Ageing in Flanders (Belgium)

In line with other regions and countries in Europe, Flanders (Belgium) is characterized by an ageing population. The share of population older than 65 will increase from approximately 20 percent in 2018 towards 25 percent in 2030. Of course, this goes together with several challenges, not only related to the sustainability of the healthcare and retirement system, but also in terms of housing, mobility and planning. Although ageing-in-place is stimulated from a policy perspective, there is very limited insight into which neighbourhood characteristics stimulate or limit the possibility to get older at home and if family networks are capable of taking up a bigger role in informal care. Although several indicators point to less potential informal caregivers in the future, a geographical perspective on informal care and the importance of distance in informal care provision are largely lacking. For tackling this a clear view on patterns of ageing can be seen as a precondition. Therefore this paper sheds more light on the relation between ageing-in-place and informal care, both from a theoretical as from a policy perspective. Furthermore it tries to set the scene in terms of geographies of ageing in Flanders on which future research can build. In this way more insight can begathered in the tensions mentioned above and in factors that can potentially contribute to age-friendly care environments, as well as more insight in neighbourhoods that are suitable for ageing-in-place. In other words, this paper tries to disentangle geographies of aging by following a multiple-scale approach making use of national population databases (2002 – 2017). It looks into patterns of ageing on different spatial scales (ranging from NUTS 2 to statistical districts). The results clearly indicate that there is not a single ‘wave’ of ageing characterising every locality in the same way. Although regional differences are relatively easy to interpret and straightforward, on a lower level patterns become more complex and less clear. A clusteranalysis re-arranges the data in an attempt to get better insight in different ageing profiles on the level of municipalities and statistical district

Geographic Proximity between Older Adults and Adult Children in Flanders (Belgium)

Most European countries do not only prioritise policies focused on ageing-in-place, but also re-emphasise the role of informal caregiving which, in reality, is mostly provided by children. Thereby it is often overlooked that organising informal care at home gives rise to complicated and multilayered negotiations between people and their home environments. Distance can be seen as one of the decisive factors regarding informal caregiving. At least, international literature suggests that distance between older parents and adult children (still) matters in receiving and providing informal care, which was further highlighted during the pandemic in which some countries forbid non-essential travel outside the neighbourhood (incl. informal caregiving and support). Altogether, not much is known about the geographic proximity between older adults and adult children. We aim to contribute to the discussion regarding the impact of geographic proximity to provide or receive informal care in the context of a policy of ageing-in-place and the socialisation of care. To realise this, we calculate distances between parents (65+, living in Flanders) and adult children (across Belgium) based on the national population register of Belgium, using a cohort study for the period between 2002 and 2017. We researched ways in which physical distances differ across several dimensions, such as the number of children, age, gender and civil status. Although we found that older adults and adult children in Flanders in general live close by, there are signs pointing to an increase in geographical distance over time, potentially challenging the possibility to age-in-place and to negotiate informal care, while a differentiation of the pattern can be recognised according to dimensions mentioned above

Assessing Expanding Space Use versus Infill for Economic Activities

In order to limit additional (net) land take for economic activities, the reality of space use needs to be properly understood since the location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different environments. This was assessed by comparing the spatial patterns obtained from a field inventory with those from existing data for 5 case areas in Flanders (Belgium). Each case area is a transect from a high density urban area to a suburban neighbourhood or even a semi-rural zone, in different (types of) regions: inland-coastline transect, transects in the metropolitan areas of the major cities Antwerp and Ghent (exluding the city centres), in the medium sized city of Hasselt (and its suburbs) and th smaller city of Aalst (and the zone along an important access road), and transects incorporating small towns such as Deinze and Veurne . The observations in the field were made from what is visible from the street, thus representing what is normally perceived as economic activity. The statistics are based on official data, mostly derived from tax returns and social security contributions, and on commercial retail data. The location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different settlement environments. The analysis then compared similar settlement environments in different regions, and identified typical characteristics for 8 location environments (with some further subcategories). These were presented to experts in workshops and (group) interviews. This revealed that, in some environments, (the combination of) data and statistics give a good understanding of the space use while, in other environments, gaps with realities in the field are obvious. Therefore, suggestions are made for targeted new data collection methods, such as remote sensing, crowd sourcing, and web data extraction

Assessing Discrepancies between Official Economic Statistics and Land Use through a Field Inventory System

To limit additional (net) land take for economic activities, the reality of space use needs to be properly understood. This was assessed by comparing the spatial patterns obtained from a field inventory with those from existing data for five case areas in Flanders (Belgium). Each case area is a transect from a high-density urban area to a suburban neighborhood or even a semi-rural zone. The statistics on these areas, based on official data, mostly derived from tax returns, social security contributions, and on commercial retail data, were checked with field observations. The location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different settlement environments, resulting in the identification of typical characteristics for eight location environment types. While in, for example, core shopping centers a strong convergence can be noticed between existing statistics and the field inventory (71% of companies and 93% of parcels are detected on the field), in residential areas (21% of companies and 17% of parcels are detected on the field) the convergence is very limited. In other words, in some environments, (the combination of) data and statistics give a good understanding of the space use while, in other environments, gaps with realities in the field are obvious. Therefore, a field inventory system can enrich the picture and present another reality to complement both existing statistics and other land-use data methods such as remote sensing and web data extraction

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status: publishe

Towards an age-friendly future: ageing-in-place and spatial sustainability in Flanders

edition: Researchers Day October 18th Book of Abstractsstatus: publishe