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These are the first EU-level water accounts that display water balances at monthly and sub-basin levels. EEA developed these accounts in the hope that the many data gaps and methodological imperfections will be ironed out in the future.
The concept of green infrastructure and its integration into policies using monitoring systems
Forests do not only provide us food, fibre and medicine, they regulate our climate and improve our quality of life. Human activities and climate change exert increasing pressure on our forest resources and the services they provide. With increasing demand on forests services on the one side, and uncertainty and risks linked to climate change on the other, we need to ensure that forests can continue fulfilling their multifunctional role.
The report assesses the occurrence and impacts of disasters and the underlying hazards such as storms, extreme temperature events, forest fires, water scarcity and droughts, floods, snow avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes and technological accidents in Europe for the period 1998-2009.
Land use shapes our environment in positive and negative ways. Productive land is a critical resource for food and biomass production and land use strongly influences soil erosion and soil functions such as carbon storage. Land management largely determines the beauty of Europe's landscapes. It is important therefore to monitor land cover and land-use change through tools such as Corine land cover. Data on land-cover change in Europe from 2000–2006 show that growth in built-up areas and forest land leads to a continued loss of agricultural land. In turn, global economic and environmental change will increasingly influence the way Europeans use land (e.g. as communities work to mitigate and adapt to climate change). Policy responses are needed to help resolve conflicting land-use demands and to guide land-use intensity to support environmental land management.
Europe's mountain areas have social, economic and environmental capital of significance for the entire continent. This importance has been recognised since the late 19th century through national legislation; since the 1970s through regional structures for cooperation; and since the 1990s through regional legal instruments for the Alps and Carpathians. The European Union (EU) first recognised the specific characteristics of mountain areas in 1975 through the designation of Less Favoured Areas (LFAs). During the last decade, EU cohesion policy and the Treaty of Lisbon have both focused specifically on mountains.
European mountain regions provide essential ecosystem services for lowlands and host a great diversity of habitats and species, many adapted to specific extreme climatic conditions. Mountain ecosystems are fragile and vulnerable, and face severe threats from land abandonment, intensifying agriculture, impacts of infrastructure development, unsustainable exploitation and climate change.
Within the framework of the CAP, the last 50 years have seen increasing attention to biodiversity, but without clear benefits so far. With agriculture covering about half of EU land area, Europe's biodiversity is linked inextricably to agricultural practices, creating valuable agro-ecosystems across the whole of Europe.
Short assessment of the status of the European forest ecosystems
Developments in land‑use patterns across Europe are generating considerable concern, particularly in relation to achievement of environmental goals. Land‑use trends — such as urban sprawl and land abandonment — are jeopardising the future for sustainable land use. Moreover, these trends endanger the achievement of European environmental goals in areas such as biodiversity protection and water management and also hinder the effectiveness of instruments in these areas, including the Natura 2000 network and the Water Framework Directive.
Assessment using LUCAS (land use/cover area frame statistical survey)
The purpose of this report is to assess how much biomass could technically be available for energy production without increasing pressures on the environment. As such, it develops a number of environmental criteria for bioenergy production, which are then used as assumptions for modelling the primary potential. These criteria were developed on a European scale. Complementary assessments at more regional and local scale are recommended as a follow-up of this work.
This report aims to provide a fair reflection of the progress, the achievements and obstacles in the integration of environmental concerns into EU agriculture policy, based on indicators developed in the IRENA operation (see Section 1.3). It also tackles limitations to successful policy implementation at Member State level, and challenges ahead.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/landuse/publications/publications_topic or scan the QR code.
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