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Life in Europe’s freshwater bodies and regional seas is not doing well. The poor state of ecosystems has a direct impact on many animals and plants living in water, and it affects other species and humans, depending on clean water. The state of Europe’s seas is dire, mainly due to overfishing and climate change, while freshwater bodies suffer from excess nutrients and altered habitats. Chemical pollution negatively impacts both freshwater and marine environments.
Europe's freshwater and marine resources may seem limitless but they are under increasing pressure from pollution, over-exploitation and climate change. The European Environment Agency's (EEA) Signals 2018 explores the state and trends of Europe’s waters, asking how we can ensure healthy rivers, lakes, groundwater resources and seas for future generations.
Biodiversity is the name given to the variety of ecosystems (natural capital), species and genes in the world or in a particular habitat. It is essential to human wellbeing, as it delivers services that sustain our economies and societies. Biodiversity is also crucial to ecosystem services — the services that nature supplies — such as pollination, climate regulation, flood protection, soil fertility and the production of food, fuel, fibre and medicines.
The paper provides the annual update of the European air quality concentration maps and population exposure estimates for human health related indicators of pollutants PM10 (annual average, 36th highest daily average as 90.4 percentile), PM2.5 (annual average), ozone (26th highest daily max. 8-hr running average as 93.2 percentile, SOMO35) and NO2 (annual average), and vegetation related indicators (AOT40 for vegetation and for forests) for the year 2015. The report contains also an NOx annual average concentration map for 2015. The paper summarises trends in exposure estimates for the period 2005-2015 on PM10 and ozone, and for the period 2007-2015 on PM2.5. The analysis is based on interpolation of annual statistics of the 2015 observational data reported by EEA Member countries and stored in the Air Quality e-reporting database. The paper presents the mapping results including an uncertainty analysis of the interpolated maps, as well as the probabilities of exceeding relevant thresholds. These maps, with their spatial exceedance and exposure estimates, are intended to be used for the assessment of European air quality by the EEA and its ETC/ACM, and for (interactive visual) public information purposes through the EEA website.
Land recycling addresses the reuse of abandoned, vacant or underused urban land for new developments within FUAs (Functional Urban Areas, i.e. urban agglomerations). Land recycling is considered a response to land take within FUAs, i.e. urban development on arable land, permanent crop land or semi-natural areas. It is a key planning instrument for achieving the goal of no net land take by 2050 (EC, 2016).
Despite progress in improving the quality of Europe’s lakes, rivers, coastal waters and groundwater sources, pollution, structures like dams, and over-abstraction remain top threats to their long-term health. A vast majority of Europe’s water bodies still fail to meet the European Union’s minimum target for ‘good status’, according to a European Environment Agency ‘state of water’ report published today.
The Natura 2000 Barometer provides an overview of the Natura 2000 network of sites covered by the EU’s Birds and the Habitats Directives, giving information on area and site numbers.
Are there nature sites of European importance near you? Are cranes breeding there? What types of habitats and other species can you find at these sites? Check this and other key information on the EU's Natura 2000 network with the updated Natura 2000 viewer.
Natura 2000 is a network of protected areas covering Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats. It is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world, extending across all 27 EU Member States, both on land and at sea. The sites within Natura 2000 are designated under the Birds and the Habitats Directives.
The high resolution forest product consists of 3 types of (status) products, and additional change products. The status products are available for 2012, 2015, and 2018 reference years: Tree cover density (TCD) (level of tree cover density in a range from 0-100%) Dominant leaf type (DLT) (broadleaved or coniferous majority) A Forest type product (FTY). The forest type product allows to get as close as possible to the FAO forest definition. In its original (10m (2018) / 20m (2012, 2015)) resolution it consists of two products: 1) a dominant leaf type product that has a MMU of 0.5 ha, as well as a 10% tree cover density threshold applied, and 2) a support layer that maps, based on the dominant leaf type product, trees under agricultural use and in urban context (derived from CLC and imperviousness 2009 data). For the final 100m product trees under agricultural use and urban context from the support layer are removed. NEW for 2018: the 10m 2018 reference year FTY product now also has the agricultural/urban trees removed. In the past this was done only for the 100m product, now it is consistently applied for both the 10m and the 100m FTY products. Change layers The forest change products are new, and comprise a) TCDC: a simple tree cover density change product for 2012-2015 (% increase or decrease of real TCD changes). For the 2015-2018 mapping, the change layer is instead only masking loss and new tree cover. b) experimental complex dominant leaf type change product (DLTC), mapping different types of dominant leaf type changes (not yet available online).
The map shows the percentage of NUTS3 regions covered by high an very high fragmentation pressure classes. Fragmentation pressure classes express the number of meshes per 1000 km2.
Fragmentation pressure from urban and transport infrastructure expansion in rural areas (see map) in the EU Member States. The chart shows the area distribution of fragmentation pressure classes in proportion of each country's rural area.
The map shows the correspondence between fragmentation pressure from urban expansion and traffic infrastructure and population density in Europe.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/biodiversity/dm or scan the QR code.
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