ESPON SEMINAR 2122 November 2002 MondorflesBains, Luxembourg

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ESPON SEMINAR21-22 November 2002Mondorf-les-Bain
s, Luxembourg

• Development of
• Terrestrial Environment Indicators
• at the EEA
• Jean-Louis Weber

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EEA the European Environment Agency

• The EEA aims to support sustainable development
  and to help achieve significant and measurable
  improvement in Europes environment, through the
  provision of timely, targeted, relevant and
  reliable information to policy making agents and
  the public

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Main objectives of the EEA 1/2

• To assist the European Community and member
  countries to
• identify, frame, prepare and implement sound and
  effective environmental policy measures and
  legislation
• monitor, evaluate and assess actual and expected
  progress in the implementation and results of
  such measures.

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Support to the policy process the EEA policy
constellation
ECs 6th Environment Action Prog.
National legislation
Non-member country activities
ECc 6th research FP
EEA
International legislation
Sectoral integration
International Organisations activities
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(No Transcript)
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Main objectives of the EEA 2/2

• To establish and coordinate the European
  environment information and observation network
  (EIONET), based on an information infrastructure
  for the collection, analysis, assessment and
  management of data shared with European
  Commission services, EEA member countries and
  international organisations, agreements and
  conventions.

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The EEA relies on EIONET, the network of national
organisations, co-ordinated by NFPs

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What is EIONET?
Network of organisations and Individuals with
information and expertise of relevance to EEAs
Work Programme Telematics network based on
Internet technology to enable communications and
data flows between partners
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Elements of the European Environment Information
and Observation NETwork (EIONET)
ETC ETC ETC ETC
EEA ETC NFPs NRCs MCEs
European Topic Centres
National Focal Points
National Reference Centres
Main Component Elements
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Role of the National Focal Points

• Coordinate Member State Input to EEA Work
  Programme
• Support Management Board Member
• Build Telematics Network in Member State
• Coordinate data flows to ETCs and for EEA Reports
• Motivate NRCs and MCEs

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Role of the European Topic Centres

• Work under EEA subvention
• Co-ordinate topical networks of NRCs
• Deliver reports, databases
• Improve comparability
• Advise on data gaps
• May support DG ENV when EEA requested
• Represent EEA in various fora

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5 European Topic Centers
ETC on Terrestrial Environment
ETC Waste and Material Flows
ETC Air and Climate Change
ETC Nature Protection and Biodiversity
ETC Continental and maritime water
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Partners and structure

• Lead organisation

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T.E. CONCEPT an integrated approach
Urban
Land
Rural
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Setting up the EEA information systemon
Terrestrial Environment
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Setting up the EEA information systemon
Terrestrial Environment

• Data collection e.g. CLC2000
• Indicators development the EEA core set process
  and the terrestrial environment indicators
• Integrated assessment e.g. DPSIR and Land
  Ecosystems Accounts
• Conclusion Importance of the geographical
  information in the environmental information
  system

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Setting up the EEA information system on
Terrestrial Environment
1. Data collection CLC2000
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Main characteristics of Corine Land Cover (CLC)

• Mapping scale 1100 000,
• resolution 100 m
• Nomenclature 44 classes
• Minimum mapping 25 ha
• Land cover changes gt5 ha
• Geometric accuracy
• image data lt 25 m
• land cover data lt 100 m
• Thematic accuracy gt 90
• Updating frequency every 10 year

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CORINE land cover update, year 2000
EIONET National Reference Centres Land Cover
contracts EO Industry (SSC, GISAT)
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CLC2000 in progress

• National inventories to be finalised by Dec. 2003
• Co-financing of the programme by COM Member
  States
• Accession Countries participating on the same
  basis
• Data will be disseminated for free for
  non-commercial use (e.g. ESPON)
• Commercial use pricing up to each country

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Setting up the EEA information system on
Terrestrial Environment

• 2. Indicators development
• the EEA  core set  process
• and the terrestrial environment indicators

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Reporting obligations

• Legal Compliance data
• Assessment of the implementation of the
  regulations by the Member states
• Dont necessarily inform on state, trends,
  effectiveness of policies
• Moral the reporting on state trends
• Multiple clients
• Multiple data flows

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The present situation and the need to streamline
the process
The Public and Decision-Makers
The Public and Decision-Makers
EC
EEA
OECD
UNEP
Eurostat
EC
EEA
OECD
UNEP
DG
DG
ETC
ETC
DG
DG
National Institutions
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The approach of the EEA, based on indicators

• One EEA Core Set of Indicators
• Covering Environmental Issues and Sectors
• Refering to Policies
• Shared with EIONET, the Commission and
  International Organisations,
• Maintained on the WEB (Reportnet),
• Accessible to the Public(s) on the WEB
• Used as a Resource for various EEA Reports

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Why indicators? Accountability!
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Why indicators? Communication!
Environmental Headline Indicators
Keys ? Good progress towards meeting objective,
improvement ? No significant change, static ?
Movement away from objective, declining ?
Insufficient data
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Why indicators? Benchmarking!
Transport CO2 emissions change 1990-1999
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Why indicators ? Answering the policy questions

• Environmental issues (clean air, climate change,
  good water, healthy ecosystems)
• Integration of environmental concerns in sector
  policies (transport, agriculture, energy,
  tourism)
• Sustainable development reporting

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4 basic policy questions

• Type A What is happening?
• Environmental state and quality
• Type B Does it matter?
• Performance indicators
• Type C Are we improving our processes?
• Eco-efficiency indicators
• Type D "Are policies working?"
• Measure of policy effectiveness

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EU Indicator architecture
Environmental issue indicators
Sectoral indicators
ca 100
n x 30
development
env.
integration
process
policy
Environment
headline indicators
10?
progress
sustainability
to
assessment
global
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THE EEA CORE SET OF INDICATORS
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CORE SET OF INDICATORS / TERRESTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT MAIN POLICY ISSUES

• Regional Policy and Sustainable Land Use
• Urban Environment
• Coast Protection and Integrated Management 
• Soils Protection and Sustainable Use
• Terrestrial Dimension of Specific Environmental
  Issues
• Sector Policies and Sustainable Land Use

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CORE SET OF INDICATORS / TERRESTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC POLICY ISSUES (1)

• Regional Policy and Sustainable Land Use
• REG1 State and changes of land use and land
  cover patterns in Europe
• REG2 Environmental dimension of the European
  spatial integration
• REG3 Environmental dimension of rural and urban
  interaction

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CORE SET OF INDICATORS / TERRESTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC POLICY ISSUES (2)

• Urban Environment
• URB1 Sustainable use of land by urban systems
• URB2 Citizen access to nearby public open areas
  green areas
• URB3 Local mobility and passenger
  transportation trips, time distance
• URB4 Noise pollution in urban areas

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CORE SET OF INDICATORS / TERRESTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC POLICY ISSUES (3)

• Coast Protection and Integrated Management
• COAST1 Sustainability of the coastal development
• COAST2 Water and waste management in coastal
  zones
• COAST3 Impact of land use on coastal biodiversity
• COAST4 Coastal erosion
• COAST5 Risks to the coastal zones
•  

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CORE SET OF INDICATORS / TERRESTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC POLICY ISSUES (4)

• Soils Protection and Sustainable Use
• SOIL1 Soil erosion
• SOIL2 Decline in organic matter in soil
• SOIL3 Diffuse soil contamination
• SOIL4 Local soil contamination
• SOIL5 Soil sealing
• SOIL6 Other threats to soil

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CORE SET OF INDICATORS / TERRESTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC POLICY ISSUES (5)

• Terrestrial Dimension of Specific Environmental
  Issues
• WATR River basin management
• BIODV Spatial dimension of biodiversity
  conservation
• CLIM Impact of land use on climate changes
• RISK Spatial analysis of risks to human health
  the environment

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CORE SET OF INDICATORS / TERRESTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC POLICY ISSUES (6)

• Sector Policies and Sustainable Land Use
• TRAN Transport impact on the environmental
  landscape
• TOUR Tourism impact on the environmental
  landscape
• AGRI1 Agriculture impact on the environmental
  landscape
• AGRI2 Agriculture sustainable use of soil
• FORST Spatial dimension of the sustainable
  development of the forests

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Setting up the EEA information system on
Terrestrial Environment

• 3. Integrated assessment
• e.g. DPSIR, Land Ecosystems Accounts

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Reminder

• An indicator is a dataset which tells something
  is more than the dataset itself
• An indicator tells about interactions, causes and
  effects

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The story DPSIR
Environment Sectors Policies, Participation
Responses
Economic Social Drivers
Driving Forces
Pressures
Pollutants Resource use Land use
Impact
Health of ecosystems, population, economy
State
Quality Natural resources
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The story Land and Ecosystems Accounts

• Previous experiences
• UN-ECE working group on physical environment
  accounts,
• Eurostat,
• France, Great-Britain, Germany, Chile
• SEEA Chapter  Land and Ecosystems Accounts 
• Common project EEA-ETCTE-Eurostat, based on CLC
• Test areas
• The coastal zones of Europe
• 4 PHARE countries

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Conceptual basis of stock flow accounts (after
Haines-Young)





Opening balance
Closing balance
Flow account


Rows of table
define structure of
_
/
world in terms of

Indicators
elements of natural
capital

Columns define
process which affect
row elements


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Land Ecosystem Accounting

• Basic Accounts, common for all, describing land
  use and land cover changes
•  Supplementary Accounts  targetted to priority
  poicy issues specific but connected with the
  Basic Accounts
• A set of nomenclature for bridging with the
  National Accounts
• Spatial Analysis Analytical and Reporting Units,
  Landscape Types

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Structure of the basic set of land cover/land use
accounts(SEEA 2000 - Figure 8.7)
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Illustration Great Britain,Land cover Account
based on the CountrysideSurvey
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Illustration The Four Major Landscape Types used
for the Geographical Disaggregation of the
Environmental Accounts in Great Britain
(Haines-Young after Barr et al 1993)

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Map of dominant Land Cover types of Europe as a
possible (?) basis for land and ecosystems
accounts

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Conclusion

• Importance of the geographical information in
  the environmental information system

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Needs of spatial data for the EEA indicators -
Provisional
NUTS (103)
Indicators
Spatial dataset
CLC (82)
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Geographical data and spatial analysis and
modelling in the environment information system
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European Environment Agency
Copenhagen Denmark http//www.eea.eu.int (See
Josiane Riviere BU5 3/63)