The Environmental Atlas

Major new website to assist with climate change adaptation in Europe: Climate change is already evident in Europe. Across the continent, policy makers are starting to respond to current and future impacts and risks associated with rising temperatures, changing precipitation, melting glaciers, ice and snow, rising sea levels, and more frequent and intense floods and droughts.
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Butterflies or business - Europe can have both!: The European Environment Agency (EEA) released today its fourth Environment State and Outlook report — SOER 2010 — a comprehensive assessment of how and why Europe’s environment is changing, and what we are doing about it. SOER 2010 concludes that a fully integrated approach to transforming Europe to a resource-efficient green economy can not only result in a healthy environment, but also boost prosperity and social cohesion.
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Regional climate change and adaptation — The Alps facing the challenge of changing water resources: Drawing on the most recent knowledge of climate change impacts in the Alps and experiences across the region, this report analyses the risks that climate change presents to the region's water supply and quality, identifying needs, constraints, opportunities, policy levers and options for adaptation. It extracts policy guidance on adaptation practice and aims to assist regional and local stakeholders in developing robust adaptation strategies. The focus of the report is on water resources and related adaptation, rather than water-related extreme events like floods, avalanches, landslides or mudflows, which are already well covered by existing studies of climate change impacts in the Alps.
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Europe must adapt to stay ahead of a changing climate: As Europe’s climate warms, wine producers in Europe may need to change the type of grapes they cultivate or the location of vineyards, even moving production to other areas in some cases. This is just one example of how Europe’s economy and society need to adapt to climate change, as examined in a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA).
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Europe's future depends on cities resilient to climate change: Around three quarters of Europeans live in cities. Most of Europe's wealth is generated in cities, and urban areas are particularly at risk due to climate change. Europe should seize the opportunity of improving quality of life while adapting to climate change in cities, according to a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The report also warns that delaying adaptation will be much more costly in the long-term.
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EEA Briefing 3/2008 - Impacts of Europe's changing climate: Global climate change is a reality. In Europe the most vulnerable regions are the Arctic, mountain areas, coastal zones and the Mediterranean. Key economic sectors, which will need to adapt include energy supply, health, water management, agriculture, forestry, tourism and transport.
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Floating cities: Environmental Atlas of Europe - The Netherlands: Almost a third of the Netherlands lies below sea level, and over the centuries the country has developed a highly efficient flood-defence system. The tragic floods of 1953, caused by a storm surge and exceptionally spring tides, led to a range of modern-day engineering solutions as well as a heightened awareness in Dutch society of the dangers of sea level rise. But when, in the mid 1990s, unusually heavy rain in Belgium and Germany caused the Rhine and the Meuse to breach their banks and hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated, it was clear that long-term action would have to be taken to protect against flooding from river water as well. The government has now launched a wide ranging programme of adaptation schemes to protect the coasts from sea-level and to create 'Room for the River', by establishing unobstructed spaces into which the major rivers can safely over-flow.
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City of five seas: Environmental Atlas of Europe — Russia: Nizhny Novgorod has a population of 1.3 million and is one of Russia's most important industrial cities. Its process manufacturing plants are heavily reliant on water, supplied from the Volga River and one of its tributaries, the Oka. The region's drinking water also comes from the Upper Volga Basin.
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Climate change evident across Europe, confirming urgent need for adaptation: Climate change is affecting all regions in Europe, causing a wide range of impacts on society and the environment. Further impacts are expected in the future, potentially causing high damage costs, according to the latest assessment published by the European Environment Agency today.
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