Data Visualization
15 Nov 2018
Trend lines and observation points for March (the month of sea-ice extent maximum) and September (the month of sea-ice extent minimum) have been indicated.
Data Visualization
15 Nov 2018
Maximum extent of ice cover in the Baltic Sea in the winters 1719/20 – 2017/8 (blue bars) and 15 year moving average (red line). Source: Jouni Vainio, Finnish Meteorological Institute (updated from Seinä and Palosuo 1996; Seinä et al. 2001).
Indicator Assessment
15 Nov 2018
The extent and volume of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly since global data became available, especially in summer. Over the period 1979–2018, the Arctic has lost, on average, 89 000 km 2 per year by the end of summer (measured in September) and 46 000 km 2 of sea ice per year in winter (measured in March).
In each of the last 12 years (2007–2018), Arctic summer sea ice extent was lower than in any previous year since the introduction of satellites in 1979. Arctic winter sea ice in 2017 and 2018 were the lowest on record.
Arctic sea ice is also getting younger and thinner. The fraction of multi-year ice (i.e. ice that has sustained at least one summer) has decreased from 45 % in March 1985 to 21 % in March 2017.
The maximum sea ice extent in the Baltic Sea shows a decreasing trend since about 1800. The decrease appears to have accelerated since the 1980s, but the interannual variability is large.
Arctic sea ice is projected to continue shrinking and thinning. At current emission rates, a nearly ice-free Arctic Ocean at the end of summer is likely before mid-century. In contrast, emissions scenarios compatible with 1.5 °C global warming are expected to preserve Arctic summer sea ice.
Baltic Sea ice, in particular the extent of the maximal cover, is projected to continue to shrink.
Changes in the extent of sea ice are an important indicator of global warming. Reduced Arctic sea ice is accelerating global warming through the ice-albedo feedback. Arctic sea ice decline has also been linked to changing climate and weather extremes in Europe and beyond.
The European inventory of nationally designated areas holds information about protected areas and the national legislative instruments, which directly or indirectly create protected areas.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are geographically distinct zones for which protection objectives are set. They constitute a globally acknowledged system for safeguarding biodiversity and maintaining marine ecosystem services.
The Monitoring Mechanism Regulation ((EC) No 525/2013) requires Member States to report national projections of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Every two years, each EU Member State shall report GHG projections in a ‘with existing measures’ scenario for the years 2020, 2025, 2030 and 2035, by gas (or group of gases) and by sector. National projections shall take into consideration any policies and measures adopted at Union level. The reported data are quality checked by the EEA and its European Topic Centre for Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation (ETC/ACM).
Indicator Assessment
16 Oct 2018
Emissions of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) decreased between 1990 and 2016 in the EEA-33, e.g. hexachlorobenzene (HCB) by 95 %, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by 75 %, dioxins and furans by around 70 % and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by 83 %.
Although the majority of countries report that POP emissions fell during this period, some report that emissions increased.
In 2016, the most significant sources of emissions for these POPs included the ‘Commercial, institutional and households’ (23 % of HCB, 26 % of dioxins and furans, 36 % of PAHs and 16 % of PCBs) and ‘Industrial processes and product use’ (41 % of HCB, 65 % of PCBs and 40 % of PAHs) sectors.
GIS Map Application
10 Oct 2018
This interactive map gives a European overview of water stress conditions. The information presented may deviate from that available in the EEA member countries and cooperating countries, particularly for those countries where data availability is insufficient in the WISE SoE – Water quantity database (WISE 3).
Data on hydro-climatic variables was aggregated from a daily to a monthly scale. Water abstraction data was taken from WISE 3 (annual resolution at the national scale), although there are large gaps in the time series. Therefore, intensive gap filling was performed on water abstraction data and proxies were used to disaggregate the data from the national to the sub-basin scale.
Information on water use was mainly modelled on the UWWTP capacities, the E-PRTR database and the Eurostat Population change dataset (online data code [demo_gind]) among others. See the methodology chapter for further explanation of gap filling, and spatial and temporal disaggregation, and the data uncertainties chapter for current data availability.
This interactive map allows users to explore changes over time in water abstraction by source, water use by sector and water stress level at sub-basin or river basin scale. The WEI+ has been estimated as the quarterly average per river basin district, for the years 1990-2015, as defined in the European catchments and rivers network system (ECRINS). The ECRINS delineation of river basin districts differs slightly from that defined by Member States under the Water Framework Directive. The Ecrins delineation is used instead of WFD because it contains geo-spatial information on Europe’s hydrographical systems with full topological information enabling flow estimation between upstream and downstream basins, as well as integration of economic data collected at NUTS or country level.
In addition to using e WISE SoE – Water quantity database, a comprehensive manual data collection was performed by accessing all open sources (Eurostat, OECD, FAO) including national statistical offices of the countries. This was done because of the temporal and spatial gaps in the data on water abstraction. Moreover, a large part of the stream flow data from LISFLOOD has also been substantially updated by the Directorate-General Joint Research Centre. Similarly, a comprehensive update with climatic parameters has been performed by the EEA based on the E-OBS dataset. Therefore, the time series of the WEI+ presented in the current version might be slightly different for some basins compared with the previous version.
Accumulated ozone exposure values for crops — over a threshold of 40 parts per billion (AOT40c) — for 2015, as calculated for the fusion maps and as measured at rural background stations.
GIS Map Application
01 Aug 2018
Latest measurements from Europe's air quality monitoring network
'Black check mark' indicates that the emission ceiling or reduction commitment has been, or is anticipated to be, attained. The NEC Directive does not include a 2010 ceiling for PM2.5.
‘Red cross’ indicates that the ceiling or reduction commitment has not been, or is not anticipated to be, attained.
The illustration shows the distribution of marine litter reported by the public and where they were found
