Mapping Europe’s earthquake risk

by Christian Du Brulle




The rubble of a building destroyed by the earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009. © Shutterstock/Fotografiche

The Balkan and Mediterranean countries as well as Turkey are all at higher risk of earthquakes than many other Europeans, according to a map produced by EU researchers.


Researchers at the EU-funded SHARE project have produced a map displaying which parts of Europe are most at risk from an earthquake, and it shows that Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey are among the most exposed regions of the continent.


‘Europe has a long history of destructive earthquakes,’ said Professor Domenico Giardini, coordinator of the SHARE project. ‘We all remember the tragic events of Izmit (Turkey) in 1999 and L’Aquila (Italy) in 2009.’ In Izmit, a strong earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale killed 17 000 people, while in L’Aquila a moderate 5.9 magnitude quake killed more than 300 people and destroyed much of the city.

To produce the map, researchers from the SHARE project combined data from more than 30 000 European earthquakes with a magnitude larger than or equal to 3.5 on the Richter scale since the year 1 000, and factored in their damaging effects. To gather data they used data from the AHEAD interactive map of earthquakes in Europe.

They then cross-referenced this data with over 1 100 active faults in Europe, which have a combined length of 64 000 kilometres.

The European Seismic Hazard Map. Blue colours indicate comparatively low hazard areas, yellow to orange colours indicate moderate hazard areas, and red colours indicate high hazard areas.© SHARE

All the information was combined on a single map that shows thick purple zones running through the areas of south-east Europe where earthquakes are more likely, and where they can cause the greatest damage to society. It shows the areas where there is a 10 % or larger probability of experiencing the mapped level of ground shaking within 50 years.

‘It is the first state-of-the-art reference hazard model for Europe,’ said Dr Artur Pinto, the head of the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment at the Joint Research Centre, the EU’s in-house science service, in Ispra, Italy. ‘It can be useful for future policies regarding different kinds of buildings and infrastructure such as dams, tall buildings or even bridges.’

However, the map also shows earthquake hotspots near Brussels in Belgium, Lisbon in Portugal, near Budapest in Hungary and along the Pyrenees mountain range. The hotspots near Brussels, Budapest and Lisbon are because a number of earthquakes have happened in the past, while the hotspot in the western Pyrenees is because of the geological make-up of the area, the project said.

Seismic hazard

‘Seismic hazard is not just about calculating the probability of an event occurring somewhere in Europe in a certain period of time,’ said Prof. Giardini.

‘Europe has a long history of destructive earthquakes.’

Professor Domenico Giardini, the coordinator of SHARE   

‘In our project, seismic risk refers to the likelihood of damages and loss that seismic events can induce to our economic and human environment,’ he said. ‘A moderate earthquake in a densely populated part of Europe, or in an area that hosts critical infrastructures, like a pipeline, can have an enormous impact.’

This was examined in more detail by the EU-funded project SYNER-G, which developed an open-source software tool to analyse vulnerability and work out the social and economic impacts of earthquakes in specific urban areas, like the port of Thessaloniki in Greece, by the time it finished in 2013.

Part of this knowledge is now also being used by geologists, seismologists and engineers as part of the STREST project, which by the time it finishes in 2016 hopes to have developed a common way of evaluating the risk to critical infrastructure, and have identified the key buildings, bridges, roads and pipelines that would have the greatest impact on our society if they were damaged during an earthquake.

All SHARE products, data and results, are freely available and provided through the projectwebsite and the European Facility for Earthquake Hazard and Risk. The map shown in the figure can be ordered from the project website.

Source: Horizon Magazine

Map of languages and language families of Europe

The following map shows the language families present in Europe (distinguished by colour) and the major languages within those families. Some local languages with a tiny number of speakers (such as Karelian in Russia or Romansh in Switzerland) were not included, but all 

languages with more than 100,000 should be present in the map, unless they are generally considered dialects of another language or not tied to a single geographic area.

Please note: Serbo-Croatian is one language from the viewpoint of linguistics, but it is politically divided into four standardized dialects: Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin. Similarly, Bulgarian and Macedonian are often not considered separate languages. Basque is not related to other European languages, and it is the last surviving pre-Indo-European language in Europe. Albanian forms its own branch of Indo-European languages. There is no consensus whether Silesian and Kashubian are dialects of Polish and Rusyn a dialect of Ukrainian or whether they are separate languages.

It is also worth noting that the term “language family” usually refers to the “top-level” families, and what the map shows are actually in many cases just “branches” of those families. Romance, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Hellenic, and Celtic languages all belong to the Indo-European language family. Uralic languages and Turkic languages form their own respective language families. Arabic languages belong to the Afroasiatic language family.

Note: The underlying blank map was made by Tindo and licensed from fotolia.com. If you want to share the map, please share a link to this webpage instead of sharing just the picture.

Source: Jakub Marian's Language learning, Science and Art

Wealth per Capita by Country in Europe: The Map

Credit Suisse recently published a study comparing the wealth (net worth) of an average adult (as an individual, not the wealth of the whole state divided by its population) in different countries, and the differences are stunning. Switzerland leads the chart with staggering 567,000 dollars, and the only other European nations with values over 300,000 are Iceland, Norway, United Kingdom, Sweden, and Luxembourg.

On the other side of the spectrum are Eastern European nations, reaching values as low as USD 1,437 for Ukraine, 1,551 for Belarus, and 3,104 for Moldova. It should be noted, however, that Credit Suisse described the quality of sources of data for these countries as “poor”, so the figures may be somewhat inaccurate.

If you want the share the map, please, share a link to this article rather than just the picture. Note: The underlying blank map was made by Tindo and licensed from fotolia.com.

Source: Jakub Marian's Language learning, Science and Art

Trends in warm days across Europe

How to read the map: Warm days are defined as being above the 90th percentile of the daily maximum temperature. Grid boxes outlined in solid black contain at least 3 stations and so are likely to be more representative of the grid-box. Higher confidence in the long-term trend is shown by a black dot.

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map_chart_25400.eps.75dpi.gif (1.8 MB)
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Metadata
Last upload:

     22 Jun 2015

Temporal coverage: 

     1960-2014

Tags:

      climate change | climate | extreme temperatures

Geographic coverage:

  Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo (UNSCR 1244/99), Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro,Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, United Kingdom

Units:

    days/decade

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Access is managed by the owner mentioned below. Please contact the owner for more information about their data policy. Owners:Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)UK Met Office Processors:European Environment Agency (EEA)Permalink to this versionabdcc122d76140479fc0e74abbe73113Permalink to latest versionD702EDEE-08D7-4687-B717-690A71819BA8 Figure type:Map

Additional information

Geographical coverage note: Europe

Source: EEA

Europe at Night

NASA’s night lights imagery published in the Earth Observatory provides a stunning view of our impact on the planet. The following map of Europe at night is an extract of my gridded population projection of the the Earth at nightshowing more detail of where the distribution of night lights is on the European continent in relation to its population distribution (the 

surrounding areas such as the northern tip of Africa remain unchanged, hence shows a ‘normal’ land area perspective). Europe is one of the few regions globally (alongside North America) where light pollution at night is very much a phenomenon that is ‘normal’ for the vast majority of people who see very little of the night skies (hence the dominantly bright areas in this image – dark spots are those areas where people live with very little light pollutin).Northumberland Dark Sky Park (which gained Dark Sky Status by the International Dark-Sky Association in December 2013) is now to be known as Europe’s biggest Dark Sky Park and the largest unspoilt area in this regard, squeezed in the sparsely populated bright spaces between Northern England and Southern Scotland in this cartogram:

(click for larger version)

While Europe remains a predominantly bright patch on the global picture this magnified image of the continent also reveals the existing differences between east and West: While Western Europe very much shines up into space where many people live, the Eastern countries are much more characterised by more obvious differences between the most densely urban und the much larger rural population where less brighter spots become more visible than in most of the rural parts of the west – a sign of prevailing inequalities in wealth, but also a sign of the much more wasteful and less sustainable use of resources in the wealthier part of the continent.

The content on this page has been created by Benjamin D. Hennig. You are free to use the material under Creative Commons conditions (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0); please contact mefor further details. I also appreciate a message if you used my maps somewhere else. High resolution and customized maps are available on request.

Source: Views of the World

Where Syria & Iraq's Foreign Fighters Come From

From Niall McCarthy


The United States and its allies have carried out at least 5,000 airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State since August 2014. While the campaign has proved effective in halting the terror group's territorial gains, it has not stopped the flow of foreign fighters into the region. In 2012, there were an estimated 3,500 foreign militants inSyria and Iraq, a number that grew to over 25,000 in 2015. Tunisia is the largest origin country, followed by Saudi Arabia and Jordan.



This chart shows the estimated number of foreign fighters in Iraq/Syria from selected countries in 2015.

Source

Watch: How Europe is greener now than 100 years ago

By Rick Noack

Within the last 100 years, Europe has experienced two World Wars, the end of communism, the emergence of the European Union and a series of other transformative political and economic developments. A team of scientists has now been able to visualize the impact of historical events in maps that show the growth and decline of settlements, forests and croplands.

The map, shown above, is the result of a research project led by Dutch scholar Richard Fuchs from the University of Wageningen. Besides regional political and economic trends, Europe's landscape was shaped by several larger developments of the 20th century, according to Fuchs.

The following maps preview some of the affected regions which we will explain and show in detail throughout this post.

"More than 100 years ago, timber was used for almost everything: as fuel wood, for metal production, furniture, house construction. Hence, at around 1900 there was hardly any forest areas left in Europe. Especially after World War II, many countries started massive afforestation programs which are still running today," Fuchs told The Washington Post.

As a result, Europe's forests grew by a third over the last 100 years. At the same time, cropland decreased due to technological innovations such as motorization, better drainage and irrigation systems: Relatively fewer area was needed to produce the same amount of food. Furthermore, many people migrated from rural to urban areas, or overseas.

Fuchs' fascinating conclusion: Forests and settlements grew at the same time and Europe is a much greener continent today than it was 100 years ago. A closer look at different regions and countries reveals Europe's recovery from the deforestation of past centuries.

In France, Spain and Italy, reforestation was particularly visible

In the southern French region of Vaucluse, entire mountain ranges were de-forested at the beginning of the 20th century, but the country invested heavily to reverse the trend. Meanwhile, agricultural projects in southern Spain transformed once arid, barren areas into profitable agricultural fields or even forests.

A similar development was documented in Italy. Former cropland were abandoned due to market competition, urbanization and emigration. Today, many parts of the Apennine Mountains (located on the right side of the map below) are dominated by grasslands and forests again.

The end of communism also led to forest growth in eastern Europe

In eastern Europe, many forests re-grew after the end of the Soviet Union. Fuchs and his colleagues explain the development with the fact that many privatized agricultural farms were less competitive on the global market. Therefore, farmers abandoned unprofitable cropland. Particularly in Romania and Poland, former cropland was taken back by nature afterward, first turning into grassland and later into forests.

In the 1990s, Europe also introduced a Common Agricultural Policy which stated that only highly productive areas should be used as cropland, in order to prevent inefficiency. Hence, fields got continuously bigger to better manage and maintain them with machines. Marginal land, however, was given up.

Scandinavian forests recovered to supply other countries

To the north of formerly communist Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Scandinavian countries were able to re-grow most of their forests (and are continuing to do so today) to keep up with timer demand, as they substituted most other suppliers in Europe that had practically used up most of their own wood resources.

Elsewhere, re-forestation programs soon had a visible impact, as well...

... as more and more people moved into urban areas 

What you see here is among of the most populous areas of Europe: London (the growing, red area in the upper part of the picture), Paris (lower left side), and Brussels (in the middle). Although London experienced its most significant population growth in the 19th century, the city's suburbs grew massively in the 20th century and continue to do so.

The city of Paris itself actually lost inhabitants over the 20th century due to gentrification and higher rents, but you can clearly see how its suburbs became more and more populous throughout the century.

Britain recovered from excessive timber demand, as theNetherlands expanded its forests

Both the Netherlands and Britain had empires that relied heavily on the sea and their naval strength. In order to build ships, they needed wood -- and in 1900, only 2 - 3 percent of their territory was still covered with forests. Both countries have since been able to increase their forest area to 10-12 percent, as data from 2010 shows. The Netherlands also pursued another major project, visible on maps: It reclaimed the Zuiderzee bay with dams and drainage systems to gain more land.

A closer look at England and Ireland shows that both countries are nevertheless still mainly covered with grassland, while re-forestation has been particularly successful in Scotland.

Lazaro Gamio contributed to this post.

Source: The Washington Post

Europa regina

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Europa regina, Latin for Queen Europe, is the map-like depiction of the European continent as a queen.[1][2]Introduced and made popular during the manneristperiod, Europe is shown standing upright with theIberian Peninsula forming her crowned head, andBohemia her heart.[3]
Origins

During the European Middle Ages, maps typically adhered to the Jerusalem-centered T-O scheme, depicting Europe, Asia and Africa.[4] Separate maps of Europe were extremely rare; the only known examples are a map from Lambert of Saint-Omer's Liber Floridus, published in 1112, and a 14th-centuryByzantine map.[4] The next Europe-focussed map was published by cartographer Johannes Putsch in 1537, at the beginning of the Early Modern Age.[4]

The Putsch-map was the first to depict Europe as anEuropa regina,[3][4][5] with the European regions forming a female human shape with crown, sceptre and globus cruciger.[4] The map was first printed by CalvinistChristian Wechel.[6] Though much about the origination and initial perception of this map is uncertain,[5] it is known that Putsch (whose name wasLatinized as Johannes Bucius Aenicola, 1516-1542)[6] maintained close relations with Holy Roman EmperorFerdinand I of Habsburg,[5][6] and that the map's popularity increased significantly during the second half of the 16th century.[5] The modern term Europa regina was not yet used by Putsch's contemporaries, who instead used the Latin phrase Europa in forma virginis ("Europe in the shape of a maiden").[6]

In 1587, Jan Bußemaker published a copper engraving by Matthias Quad, showing an adaptation of Putsch'sEuropa regina, as "Europae descriptio".[5] Since 1588,[5] another adaption was included in all subsequent editions of Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia",[4][5] earlier editions had it only sometimes included.[6]Heinrich Bünting's "Itenerarium sacrae scripturae", which had a map of Europe with female features included in its 1582 edition, switched to Europa regina in its 1589 edition.[5] Based on these and other examples, the year 1587 marks the point when many publications began adopting the imagery of Europa regina.[5]
Description

Europa regina is a young, graceful woman.[7] Her crown, placed on the Iberian peninsula, is shaped after the Carolingian hoop crown.[7] France and the Holy Roman Empire make up the upper part of her body, with Bohemia being the heart.[7] Her long gown stretches to Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Livonia, Bulgaria,Muscovy, Albania and Greece. In her arms, formed by Italy and Denmark, she holds a sceptre and an orb(Sicily).[7] In most depictions, Africa, Asia and the Scandinavian peninsula are partially shown,[7] as are a schematized British Isles.

Symbolism

Europa regina and the House of Habsburg

A rotated Europa regina compared to the Habsburg realms (green) under Charles V, who in addition was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (comprising Central Europe, not shown)

In 1537, when the Europa regina was introduced, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Habsburg had united the lands of the Habsburg's in his hands, including his country of origin, Spain.[6]Thus, the map is oriented westwards to have Spain as the crowned head,[6] pointing at the Habsburgs' claim to be universal emperors of Europe.[7] The most obvious connections to the Holy Roman Emperor are the Carolingian crown and the imperial insignia - sceptre and orb.[7] Another connection to Charles V is the gown, which resembles the contemporary dress code at the Habsburg court, and the face of the queen, which some say resembles Charles V's wife Isabella.[8] As in contemporary portraits of couples, Europa regina has her head turned to her right and also holds the orb with her right hand, which has been interpreted as facing and offering power to her imaginary husband, the emperor.[8]

More general, Europe is shown as the res publica christiana,[6]the united Christendom in medieval tradition,[7] and great[1] or even dominant power in the world.[8]

A third allegory is the attribution of Europe as the paradise by special placement of the water bodies.[6] As contemporary iconography depicted the paradise as a closed form, Europa regina is enclosed by seas and rivers.[6] TheDanube river is depicted in a way that it resembles the course of the biblical river flowing through the paradise, with its estuary formed by four arms.[6]

That Europa regina is surrounded by water is also an allusion to the antique mythological Europe, who was abducted by Zeus and carried over the water.[8]

Europa regina belongs to the Early Modern allegory of Europa triumphans, as opposed to Europa deplorans.[9]

Related maps

The art of shaping a map in a human form can also be found in a map drawn by Opicino de Canistris, showing the Mediterranean Sea.[4] This map, published in 1340 and thus predating the Putsch map, showed Europe as a man and Northern Africa as a woman.[3]

While in Europa regina maps actual geography is subordinate to the female shape, the opposite approach is seen in a map drawn by Hendrik Kloekhoff and published by Francois Bohn in 1709. In this map, titled "Europa. Volgens de nieuwste Verdeeling" ("Europe, according to the newest classification"), a female is superimposed on a map showing a fairly accurate geography of Europe, and although the map is oriented westward with the Iberian Peninsula forming the head as in the Europa regina imagery, this is resulting in a ducked woman, corresponding with the Europa deplorans rather than the Europa triumphans allegory.[10]

Sources
References

^ a b Landwehr & Stockhorst (2004), p. 279
^ Werner (2009), p. 243
^ a b c Bennholdt-Thomsen (1999), p. 22
^ a b c d e f g Borgolte (2001), p. 16
^ a b c d e f g h i Schmale (2004), p. 244
^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wendehorst & Westphal (2006), p. 63
^ a b c d e f g h Werner (2009), p. 244
^ a b c d Werner (2009), p. 245
^ Werner (2009), pp. 243ff
^ Bennholdt-Thomsen (1999), pp. 22-24
Bibliography

Baridon, Laurent (2011). Un atlas imaginaire, cartes allégoriques et satiriques (in French). Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod. ISBN 978-2-85088-515-0.
Bennholdt-Thomsen, Anke (1999). Bennholdt-Thomsen, Anke; Guzzoni, Alfredo, ed. Zur Hermetik des Spätwerks. Analecta Hölderlianas (in German) 1. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. ISBN 3-8260-1629-7.
Borgolte, Michael (2001). "Perspektiven europäischer Mittelalterhistorie an der Schwelle zum 21. Jahrhundert". In Lusiardi, Ralf; Borgolte,. Das europäische Mittelalter im Spannungsbogen des Vergleichs. Europa im Mittelalter. Abhandlungen und Beiträge zur historischen Komparatistik (in German) 1. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. pp. 13–28. ISBN 3-05-003663-X.
Werner, Elke Anna (2009). "Triumphierende Europa - Klagende Europa. Zur visuellen Konstruktion europäischer Selbstbilder in der Frühen Neuzeit". In Ißler, Roland Alexander; Renger, Almut-Barbara.Europa- Stier und Sternenkranz. Von der Union mit Zeus zum Staatenverbund. Gründungsmythen Europas in Literatur, Musik und Kunst (in German) 1. Bonn University Press, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 241–260. ISBN 3-89971-566-7.
Landwehr, Achim; Stockhorst, Stefanie (2004). Einführung in die europäische Kulturgeschichte. UTB M (in German) 2562. Paderborn: Schöningh. ISBN 3-8252-2562-3.
Schmale, Wolfgang (2004). "Europa, Braut der Fürsten. Politische Relevanz des Europamythos im 17. Jahrhundert". In Bussmann, Klaus; Werner, Elke Anna. Europa im 17. Jahrhundert. Ein politischer Mythos und seine Bilder. Kunstgeschichte (in German). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3-515-08274-3.
Wendehorst, Stephan; Westphal, Siegrid (2006). Lesebuch altes Reich. Bibliothek Altes Reich (in German)1. Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. ISBN 3-486-57909-6.

Source: Wikiwand

Asylum seekers in Europe

2,500 people are believed to have died or gone missing on their way to Europe this year already, according to estimates by UNHCR. But it was the image of a young boy found dead on the shores of Turkey which changed the tone in the debate about the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe. While the response to the crisis varies strongly, Campaign groups are calling for a European-wide approach to the crisis. While Germany suspendedthe Dublin regulation to allow regugees into the country and claim asylum regardless of where they entered the European Union, the country also calls for a more equitable system of sharing refugees across the EU similar to Germany’s domestic approach of distributing refugees.
The following cartogram shows the current situation in Europe using Eurostat’s latest statistics about the number of asylum applicants in each country. The data covers the first half of 2015 (January to June) and adds up to 417,430 officially recorded claims in that period in the EU member states. The following map also includes those European countries which are not member of the European Union but part of the Schengen area and it shows each country resized according to the absolute number of asylum applications in that country from January to June 2015:

(click for larger version)

Also included in this cartogram is a reference map that shows the population distribution in Europe – which differs significantly from the main map. In 2014, Germany had the largest absolute number of asylum seekers (as also shown in the map below) in Europe (more than 200,000 compared to over 80,000 of second-ranked Sweden), while the relative distribution saw Sweden on top with 8,365 asylum applicants per 1 million population (Germany: 2,513), Hungary coming second with 4,337 asylum applicants per 1 million population not least due to its geographic location on some of the most frequently usedmigration routes into Europe. Other populous countries saw much lower figures, such as 972 asylum applicants per 1 million population in France and 494 asylum applicants per 1 million population in the UK.
Last year EU countries offered asylum to 184,665 refugees, while according to Eurostatmore than 570,000 migrants applied for asylum. This is a map the situation in 2014, showing the distribution of asylum applicants in Europe:

(click for larger version)

To put these numbers into perspective, the number of refugees heading for Europe is small compared to the global picture that UNHCR published in its Global refugee trendsearlier this year: Around the world, almost 60 million have been displaced by conflict and persecution last year. Nearly 20 million of them are refugees. Lebanon alone houses far more than a million Syrian refugees, a number that is higher than the whole number of refugees expected to arrive in all European nations put together.
While European leaders fail to find a joint – and humane – approach, citizen have started to take action, such as an internet platform dubbed as AirBNB for refugees in Germanyand a Facebook campaign in Iceland where “more than 11,000 families in Iceland have offered to open their homes to Syrian refugees in a bid to raise the government’s cap of just 50 asylum seekers a year”.

More migration-related maps from this website can be found here:

• Global refugee trends: showing countries or origin and destination as documented in the most recent UNHCR report
• Migrants at Sea: A look at where Mediterranean refugees arrived in Europe between 2006 and 2014
• Displaced lifes: Internally displaced people

The colours in the above maps are using a colour scheme developed for the Social Atlas of Europe. Each country shown has a unique colour which allows it to be identified in the differently distorted maps. Furthermore, all countries in these maps are shaded using a rainbow colour scheme, starting with shades of dark red to demarcate the countries with the most recent association with the EU and moving through to a shade of violet for the oldest member states.



The Social Atlas of Europe
by Dimitris Ballas, Danny Dorling, Benjamin Hennig

Published by Policy Press
[Oder your copy here]

The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig using data by Eurostat. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.

Source: Views of the World

GAF AG and Partners Monitor Changes at NATURA2000 Sites across Europe

As part of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service’s local component, a European consortium headed by GAF AG is conducting a detailed assessment of land cover/land use changes at more than 750 European Natura2000 sites, on behalf of the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Semi-natural and natural grasslands are important European ecosystems that provide high biodiversity and a range of other environmental and societal functions. The intensification of agriculture and grassland management, land abandonment, drainage, shrub encroachment, afforestation, changing population structures and urbanisation are increasingly threatening these valuable natural communities. A series of European policies have therefore been created in order to safeguard such declining grassland biotopes. Pivotal in this context is Natura2000, which has established a network of protected areas including important (semi-)natural grasslands. However, even these protected grasslands are threatened by degradation and destruction.

For this reason, a team of experienced European service providers (GAF, INDRA, Metria and GeoVille) has been awarded a contract by the European Environment Agency to investigate land cover/land use developments and trends at a representative selection of Natura2000 sites and their immediate vicinity between the years 2006 and 2012. Based on 2.5m spatial resolution optical satellite imagery, the consortium will answer the question whether/in how far the Natura2000 network has been successful in halting the loss of (semi-)natural species-rich grasslands, or in improving the conservation status of degraded habitats. This will entail a detailed analysis of the specific pressures and threats being exerted by the observed land cover/land use changes, in order to draw conclusions on possible future developments on a European and regional scale.

This latest project in the Copernicus Land local component complements the other initiatives by providing a detailed zoom-in on ‘hot spots’ of biodiversity and human activity, e.g. the Riparian Zones and Urban Atlas. In the Natura2000 project, GAF is responsible for the overall project and quality management, as well as for conducting the very-high resolution land cover/land use mapping and change assessment for western and central Europe, most of Italy and parts of south-eastern Europe.

Example of abandoned semi-natural grassland in 

the Bavarian Alps, Germany (left); detailed land 

cover/land use (2012) around a Natura2000 site 

near Regensburg, Germany (right) 

Images: GAF AG 

About GAF AG

GAF AG is an e-Geos/Telespazio company based in Munich, Germany. It is a leading solutions provider with an international reputation as a skilled and reliable supplier of data, products and services in the fields of geo-information, satellite remote sensing, spatial IT and consulting for private and public clients. GAF is one of the most experienced European service providers in the EU/ESA Copernicus Programme and covers all the thematic domains: Land, Marine, Atmosphere, Climate Change, Emergency Management and Security. GAF also provides solutions in the sectors of natural resources management, water and environment, renewable resources, mining and geology. Over the past 29 years, GAF has been active in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Further information is available at www.gaf.de.

About EEA

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is a European Union public body seated in Copenhagen, Denmark. It supports the European Union in the development and implementation of environmental policy by providing relevant, reliable, targeted and timely information on the state of the environment and future prospects, as well as independent scientific knowledge and technical support. The European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) entrusted EEA with coordinating the implementation of the Copernicus Land service’s continental (pan-European) and local components, as well as cross-cutting in situ coordination. Currently, the EEA has 33 member countries (the 28 Member States of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey) and 6 cooperating countries. Further information is available atwww.eea.europa.eu.

About Copernicus Land Monitoring

Copernicus, previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), is the European programme for establishing a European capacity for earth observation. The objective of its Land Monitoring service is to provide users in the field of the environment and other terrestrial applications with consistent and up-to-date information based on space data and other sources. It addresses a wide range of policies, such as environmental issues, regional development, agriculture, transport and energy, at the EU level, as well as European commitments to International Conventions. It consists of three main components: global, continental (pan-European) and local. Further information on the Copernicus Programme is available at www.copernicus.eu. Information on the Copernicus Land Monitoring service is available at land.copernicus.eu.

Contacts:
GAF AG

Daniela Miller

Arnulfstr.199, 80634 Munich

Tel. +49 89 12 15 28-0

Fax. +49 89 12 15 28-79

Email Contact

www.gaf.de

Source