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Society depends on the satisfactory and sustainable management of water. This report considers three pieces of EU water legislation targeted at particular sectors: the Bathing Water Directive, the Drinking Water Directive and the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, and looks at common issues in the context of the Water Framework Directive. A review of the implementation of each of the sectoral directives is provided.
This report presents an updated overview and analysis of air quality in Europe. It is focused on the air quality state in 2014 and the development from 2000 to 2014. It reviews progress towards meeting the requirements of the air quality directives. An overview of the latest findings and estimates of the trends in concentrations, the effects of air pollution on health and its impacts on ecosystems are also given.
Noise pollution is a major problem for Europe’s environment. Transport and industry are the main sources of concern and prolonged exposure can damage human health and adversely affect ecosystems. European legislation aims to reduce noise pollution and also highlights the need to preserve areas that are currently unaffected. These so called quiet areas are an important component of the European soundscape and may offer havens away from noise pollution. This report sets out to identify where these potential quiet areas might be and offers an insight into how they could benefit the human and wildlife populations that inhabit or benefit from the rural European soundscape that is currently unaffected by noise pollution.
This report presents an updated overview and analysis of air quality in Europe. It is focused in the state in 2013 and the development from 2004 to 2013. It reviews progress towards meeting the requirements of the air quality directives. An overview of the latest findings and estimates of the effects of air pollution on health and its impacts on ecosystems is also given.
The purpose of this technical report is to complement the SOER 2015's Assessment of global megatrends by providing substantially more in-depth information and data on each megatrend. It covers aspects and topics that were given less attention — or no mention at all — in the SOER 2015 Assessment of global megatrends. It also provides background information on the research framework and processes that have underpinned EEA work on megatrends since 2009. The goal of this report is to stimulate thinking, spark discussion and thought, and encourage strategic decision-makers in Europe to consider emerging threats and opportunities, and ensure that policy is 'fit for the long term'. Essentially, it aims to trigger questions about what global developments should be accounted for in order to ensure that environmental policy is relevant, adequate and resilient.
Signals 2015 focuses on climate change: Our climate is changing. Global average temperatures are increasing, sea levels are rising, precipitation patterns are changing, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe. In a series of short articles and interviews, Signals 2015 presents an overview of what causes climate change and what climate change means for human health, the environment, and the economy.
The synthesis report informs future European environmental policy in general and its implementation between 2015 and 2020 in particular. It includes a reflection on the European environment in a global context, as well as chapters summarising the state of, trends in, and prospects for the environment in Europe.
Noise pollution is a growing environmental concern. It is caused by a varied number of sources and is widely present not only in the busiest urban environments, it is also pervading once natural environments. The adverse effects can be found in the well-being of exposed human populations, in the health and distribution of wildlife on the land and in the sea, in the abilities of our children to learn properly at school and in the high economic price society must pay because of noise pollution. The European soundscape is under threat and this report sets out to quantify the scale of the problem, assess what actions are being taken and to scope those that may need to be considered in the future, in order to redress the problem.
In 2010, the EEA produced its first assessment of global megatrends as part of its five-yearly assessment of the European environment’s state, trend and prospects (SOER 2010). In preparation for SOER 2015, the EEA updated each of the megatrends, providing a more detailed analysis based on the latest data. This publication is one of the 11 updates being published separately. In mid-2015 the chapters will be consolidated into a single EEA technical report.
Building a resource-efficient and circular economy in Europe: We are extracting and using more resources than our planet can produce in a given time. Current consumption and production levels are not sustainable and risk weakening our planet’s ability to provide for us. We need to reshape our production and consumption systems to enable us to produce the same amount of output with less resource, to re‑use, recover and recycle more, and to reduce the amount of waste we generate.
Noise pollution is a growing problem for Europe’s environment. Transport and industry are the main sources of concern and long term exposure can damage human health and adversely affect ecosystems. European legislation aims to reduce noise pollution and also highlights the need to preserve areas that are currently unaffected. These so called quiet areas may be found, not only in rural areas, but also inside our busiest cities. They are not only where people recreate, but also where they live and work, so how can they be identified and preserved in order to protect environmental health and well-being? This report offers a digest of actions from all across Europe to identify and protect environments with good acoustic quality.
This report provides a summary of black carbon (BC) definitions as discussed in the air quality monitoring community. Secondly, it provides a summary of the current status of BC-related monitoring in Europe. Information presented in the report includes an overview of available measurement techniques and associated technical issues, monitoring networks and current data reporting practices.
Human health and well‑being are intimately linked to environmental quality. This has been recognised for decades amongst policymakers in Europe, and most recently appears as a cornerstone in the European Commission's proposal for the 7th Environment Action Programme. This report, produced jointly by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), outlines a number of environmental issues with a direct influence on people's health and well-being and is a follow-up and update to the 2005 EEA/JRC report.
Science and the precautionary principle - lessons for preventing harm
The 2013 Late lessons from early warnings report is the second of its type produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with a broad range of external authors and peer reviewers. The case studies across both volumes of Late lessons from early warnings cover a diverse range of chemical and technological innovations, and highlight a number of systemic problems. The 'Late Lessons Project' illustrates how damaging and costly the misuse or neglect of the precautionary principle can be, using case studies and a synthesis of the lessons to be learned and applied to maximising innovations whilst minimising harms.
This report presents an overview and analysis of the status and trends of air quality in Europe based on concentration measurements in ambient air and data on anthropogenic emissions and trends from 2001 — when mandatory monitoring of ambient air concentrations of selected pollutants first produced reliable air quality information — to 2010.
A handbook for delivery of data in accordance with Directive 2002/49/EC. The report and Annex 5 have been updated to ensure that they are fully compatible with the Reportnet system for data delivery. In detail we updated the data specifications related to Major Roads and Major Railways in Annex 5 (specific changes can be found in pages 37 and 46).
Rates of endocrine diseases and disorders, such as some reproductive and developmental harm in human populations, have changed in line with the growth of the chemical industry, leading to concerns that these factors may be linked. For example, the current status of semen quality in the few European countries where studies have been systematically conducted, is very poor: fertility in approximately 40 % of men is impaired. There is also evidence of reproductive and developmental harm linked to impairments in endocrine function in a number of wildlife species, particularly in environments that are contaminated by cocktails of chemicals that are in everyday use. Based on the human and wildlife evidence, many scientists are concerned about chemical pollutants being able to interfere with the normal functioning of hormones, so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), that could play a causative role in these diseases and disorders. If this holds true, then these 'early warnings' signal a failure in environmental protection that should be addressed.
Overview of exceedances of EC ozone threshold values for April–September 2011
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/human/publications/publications_topic or scan the QR code.
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