Publications

The global population is congregating in our cities. Eighty per cent of the world’s estimated nine billion people in 2050 are expected to live in urban areas. Our cities and urban areas face many challenges from social to health to environmental. The impacts of cities and urban areas are felt in other regions which supply cities with food, water and energy and absorb pollution and waste. However, the proximity of people, businesses and services associated with the very word ‘city’ means that there are also huge opportunities. Indeed, well designed, well managed urban settings offer a key opportunity for sustainable living.

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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.

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In Europe, where the overwhelming majority of people live in urban areas, tackling the interlinked challenges between biodiversity and its network of towns and cities is crucial to help halting biodiversity loss.

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This report looks at the forces shaping the future of the environment in the Western Balkans, in particular at the role of consumption and production patterns. It begins with a review of key recent environmental trends in the region, then analyses the global, European, regional and national drivers — such as social, political and economic — that are shaping production and consumption patterns. Addressing environmental challenges in a sustainable manner requires a close review of plausible future developments in other sectors and the potential implications of these drivers on the environment. At the end report also looks at how different actors in the region can act to shape environmental futures. The report takes a futures perspective because the countries of the Western Balkan are at a turning point in the development of their economies, societies and environment. This is important as in the long term, political, economic and other changes may exacerbate some environmental problems, create new ones and provide the means to address existing issues. The report also closely reviews and assesses how can available information support region-wide forward-looking integrated environment assessment.

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In May 2008, the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities captured the concerns and desires of urban policy‑makers and citizens in the title of its new European Urban Charter: Manifesto for a new urbanity. Like numerous other international and European charters, conventions and declarations, the manifesto describes with some apprehension the 'unprecedented environmental, democratic, cultural, social and economic challenges' facing urban centres and their inhabitants. Our report on quality of life in Europe's cities and towns reiterates these concerns but also unravels the many apparent paradoxes of urban development and the sometimes perplexing realities of urban Europe today. The report defines a vision for progress towards a more sustainable, well‑designed urban future.

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Faced with risk and uncertainty, environmental policy-makers are increasingly using scenario planning to guide decision‑making. The vibrancy of the field is evident in the numerous case studies conducted using diverse methodologies. Yet even well‑crafted scenarios can fail to have their intended policy impact if they present irrelevant information, lack support from relevant actors, are poorly embedded into relevant organisations or ignore key institutional context conditions. Unfortunately, the shortage of research on scenario planning and its influence means that there is limited guidance on how to optimise scenarios, in terms of both outputs and uptake by policy-makers. This technical report addresses this lack of information, presenting a review of relevant academic and non‑academic literature on the issue.

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This report presents particulate matter (PM10) and ground‑level ozone concentration maps covering the whole of Europe. The interpolated maps are based on a combination of measurement and regional modelling results. Using measured concentrations as a primary source of information, the report summarizes the methodologies and the methodological choices taken in order to derive such maps.

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Towards an urban atlas: Assessment of spatial data on 25 European cities and urban areas

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