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Land recycling is still low in all European countries: on average, land recycling accounted for only 13.5 % of total land consumption in European cities in the 2006-2012 period. The land use densification process, i.e. when land development makes maximum use of existing infrastructure, accounts for the largest proportion of land recycling. However, in most countries, land take dominates over densification in total land management with the exception of Finland and France. Grey recycling, i.e. internal conversions between residential and/or non-residential land cover types, is secondary to densification, ranging from 14 % to less than 1 % of total land consumption. Land take predominates over grey recycling in total land management in all countries. Green recycling, i.e. the development of green urban areas using previously built-up areas, is an important trend that reverses soil sealing, but it is a marginal process in all countries and, on average, it accounts for only 0.2 % of total land consumption.
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).
The WISE WFD database contains data from the 1st and 2nd River Basin Management Plans reported by EU Members States according to article 13 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The database includes information about surface water bodies (number and size, water body category, ecological status or potential, chemical status, significant pressures and impacts) and about groundwater bodies (number and size, quantitative status, chemical status, significant pressures and impacts). The information is presented by country, river basin district (RBD) and river basin district sub-unit (where applicable).
The WFD requires the identification of significant pressures from point sources of pollution, diffuse sources of pollution, modifications of flow regimes through abstractions or regulation and morphological alterations, as well as any other pressures. ‘Significant’ means that the pressure contributes to an impact that may result in failing to meet the WFD objectives of not having at least good status. In some cases, the pressure from several drivers, e.g. water abstraction from agriculture and households, may in combination be significant. Further dashboards are available below.
The Water Framework Directive ‘water environment’ includes rivers, lakes, transitional waters, groundwater and coastal waters out to 1 nautical mile (12 nautical miles for chemical status, i.e. for territorial waters). These waters are divided into units called water bodies. Member States have in the river basin districts delineated water bodies and reported different data to characterize water bodies such as length or area, category (groundwater, rivers, lakes, transitional, coastal waters), national type and information if a surface water body is designated as heavily modified or artificial. More dashboards are available below the main dashboard.
Ecological status is determined for rivers, lakes, and transitional and coastal waters based on biological quality elements (phytoplankton, macrophytes, phytobenthos, benthic invertebrate fauna and fish) and supporting physico-chemical (nutrients, oxygen condition, temperature, transparency, salinity and river basin specific pollutants (RBSPs) and hydromorphological quality elements. The WFD specifies which elements are to be assessed for each water category and requires that biological and supporting quality elements achieve at least good status. The dashboards provide overview of the different results related to ecological status of quality elements. Further dashboards are available below.
Ecological status is an assessment of the quality of the structure and functioning of surface water ecosystems. It shows the influence of pressures (e.g. pollution and habitat degradation) on the identified quality elements. Ecological status is determined for each of the surface water bodies of rivers, lakes, transitional waters and coastal waters, based on biological quality elements and supported by physico-chemical and hydromorphological quality elements. The overall ecological status classification for a water body is determined, according to the ‘one out, all out’ principle, by the element with the worst status out of all the biological and supporting quality elements. More dashboards are available below the main dashboard.
For surface waters, good chemical status means that no concentrations of priority substances exceed the relevant EQS established in the Environmental Quality Standards Directive 2008/105/EC (as amended by the Priority Substances Directive 2013/39/EU). EQS aim to protect the most sensitive species from direct toxicity, including predators and humans via secondary poisoning. A smaller group of priority hazardous substances were identified in the Priority Substances Directive as uPBT (ubiquitous (present, appearing or found everywhere), persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic). The uPBTs are mercury, brominated diphenyl ethers (pBDE), tributyltin and certain polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Click on <..> to see different dashboards, more dashboards are available below the main dashboard.
The WFD requires Member States to designate separate groundwater bodies and ensure that each one achieves 'good chemical and quantitative status'. To meet the aim of good chemical status, hazardous substances should be prevented from entering groundwater, and the entry of all other pollutants (e.g. nitrates) should be limited. Good quantitative status can be achieved by ensuring that the available groundwater resource is not reduced by the long-term annual average rate of abstraction. In addition, impacts on surface water linked with groundwater or groundwater-dependent terrestrial ecosystems should be avoided, as should saline intrusions. Further dashboards are available below.
Groundwater bodies failing to achieve good status, per River Basin District. RBMP: River Basin Management Plan.
Bathing water sites where quality improved from poor in 2016 to sufficient, good or excellent in 2017; and bathing water sites where quality deteriorated from excellent, sufficient or good in 2016 to poor in 2017.
'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
The illustration shows the top ten items of marine litter reported by the public and where they were found.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/find/global or scan the QR code.
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