Data set "Accessibility Indicators to services at EU scale - 1 km grid indicators" of the GRANULAR project

One of the key outputs of the GRANULAR project is the dataset "Accessibility Indicators to services at EU scale - 1 km grid indicators", which provides comprehensive information on travel times from each cell of the European population in a 1 km grid to villages, cities and towns across Europe. This approach uses an open and reproducible methodology with the assistance of the open-source OSRM routing engine built on data from OpenStreetMap. The resulting data contains a huge travel time matrix file that captures up to 512 million estimated travel times by car between origin points and municipal/city-level centers. Based on this matrix, it is then possible to calculate various accessibility indicators that focus on differences in the availability of services across regions.

The data is visualized through the Data Viewer on the GRANULAR platform, a digital interface designed to explore indicators at both local and regional levels. Thanks to it, users get the possibility to easily view and analyze the level of availability of services in rural areas. The methodology behind this process is detailed through documentation and open R-notebooks, making it transparent, repeatable and extensible, emphasizing data quality and ease of updating. Specifically, the layer of cities and municipalities from the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission is used, which serves as a proxy for small and medium-sized business headquarters in Europe.

The final visualization is available on a separate page granular-gridviz, where the data can be viewed in the form of an interactive map with a 1 km grid, displaying travel times and their spatial distribution. This visualization supports an intuitive understanding of spatial differences in service accessibility across Europe. The dataset thus provides a robust basis for analyzes of commuting accessibility and, together with the Data Viewer, offers a practical tool for examination and interpretation, which is beneficial for both researchers and policy makers.

GRANULAR Digital Platform (platform.ruralgranular.eu) is an open online environment for the visualization, sharing and analysis of data focused on rural areas of Europe. Its aim is to provide researchers, politicians and the general public with tools to better understand spatial differences and support data-based decision-making. The platform makes available a wide range of indicators and data sets related to demographics, services, accessibility or environmental aspects and offers a user-friendly interface for their interactive exploration.