Abstract:
The Administrative Regions/Boundaries data set shows sub-national administrative areas within the European continent. Generally speaking, the data set contains second-level administrative units for the whole of Europe, including countries outside the European Community (EC) in northern, eastern and central Europe. For the 12 member countries of the EC, the data are nearly identical with NUTS level
... II boundaries. The Nomenclature des Unites Territorial Statistiques is the name used by the EC to define different hierarchical administrative levels. Level II typically refers to provinces or counties. To enable incorporation of non-EC regions, a second coding system has been provided, in addition to the NUTS system. Both coding systems are included in the data set.
The original coverage was provided to GRID by Eurostat in the Lambert Azimuthal projection, which is the EC standard projection. GRID has re-projected the coverage to fit the Latitude/Longitude coordinate system. Furthermore, attributes supplied by Eurostat for population size, names and surface areas have been checked, edited and added to the coverage in order to assure greater consistency within the data.
The resulting administrative regions map, covering a pan-European area, contains 2555 polygons for 415 regions and includes attribute data for the size, name and population for several years between 1980 and 1991. For technical reasons, the attribute data for the names have been put in a separate 'Info' file.
In Arc/Info uncompressed 'EXPORT' format, the coverage plus attribute data comprises 10.7 Mb of data. The coverage in Lat/Long projection is called EUADMLL and the associated 'Info' file EUNAMLL.INF. These files can be read from tape to disk using Arc/Info's TAPEREAD command and subsequently be imported into Arc/Info using the commands:
IMPORT COVER EUADMLL EUADMLL and IMPORT INFO EUNAMLL EUNAMLL.INF.
The attribute file can then be joined with the polygon attribute file of the main coverage (EUADMLL.PAT) using Arc's JOINITEM command or Info's RELATE command. The item to be used for this is called EUADMLL-ID.
The data set extends geographically from -24 31' 19" West to 31 36' 18" East longitude and from 27 38' 13" to 71 10' 8" North latitude. The coverage is also available in the original Lambert Azimuthal projection.
The source for the pan-European Administrative Boundaries data set is: Commission of the European Communities, Eurostat - GISCO, Luxembourg.
References to the data set are: - The CORINE Database Manual; Directorate General for the Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection, Commission of the European Communities, Version 2.2, Brussels, November 1989. - Regions; Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics; Eurostat; Luxembourg, March 1992. - List of administrative regions for European countries outside the Community; Eurostat, Luxembourg, December 1992.
The Arc/Info attributes are explained below:
EUADMLL.PAT ----------- Item: Description: Values:
ARRGCD Administrative Region code see list NURGCD NUTS Region Code see list ARRGCTCD Adm. Region Continental Code EE = EUROPE - EC EF = Europe - EFTA EN = Europe - others A = Asia F = Africa S = Seas/Lakes P = Arctica ARRGLBLV Adm. Region Label Level 1 = biggest polygon by admin. region 2 = all others TOTAREA Area of region in km2 POP80 1980 Pop. of ARRGCD region no. of inhabitants POP85 1985 Pop. of ARRGCD region no. of inhabitants POP87 1987 Pop. of ARRGCD region no. of inhabitants POP88 1988 Pop. of ARRGCD region no. of inhabitants POP89 1989 Pop. of ARRGCD region no. of inhabitants POP90 1990 Pop. of ARRGCD region no. of inhabitants POP91 1991 Pop. of ARRGCD region no. of inhabitants
(Redefined Items:) ARRGCD0 Admin. Region Code Level 0 country level ARRGCD1 Admin. Region Code Level 1 regional level ARRGCD2 Admin. Region Code Level 2 regional level NURGCD0 NUTS Region Code Level 0 country level NURGCD1 NUTS Region Code Level 1 regional level NURGCD2 NUTS Region Code Level 2 regional level.
EUADMLL.AAT -----------
Item: Description: Values:
ARRGBNLV Admin. Region Boundary Level Type of boundary: -1 Coastline 0 National boundary 1 Regional boundary 2 Regional boundary 3 Regional boundary
EUNAMLL.INF ----------- Item: Description: Values:
EUADMLL-ID unique identifier same as in EUADMLL.PAT NAME Name of ARRGCD/NURGCD region in national language 
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