Territorial Trends and Policy Impacts in the Field of EU Environmental Policy ESPON Project 2.4.1

The Project September 2005 – May 2006 Interim Report, 15 th February 2006 Final Report, 31 st May 2006 Partners: –Geological Survey of Finland (LP) –European Topic Centre on Terrestrial Environment – Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona, Spain –Plan + Risk Consult, Germany –Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning – Office for Spatial Development, Slovenia –GeoVille, Austria –Geographic Information Management SA, Luxembourg

The Main Objectives Territorial trends, situations and structures in relation to the main environmental issues of relevance for the development of regions and larger territories Proposal on a Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) of EU Environmental Policy and testing TIA approach on three major elements of EU Environmental Policy Recommendations and proposals on future applied research projects

Results so far Review of EU Environmental Policy documents Identifying spatial relevant elements and documents of EU Environmental Policy Territorial Impact Assessment for European Environmental Policy – three test cases: Water, Nature & Biodiversity, Civil Protection Review of European environmental indicators and identification of spatial relevant indicators Development of indicators on urban growth & productivity, area of the Natura2000 network Preliminary recommendations for future applied research

Territorial Impact Assessment for EU Environmental Policy Environmental Policy Element Nature & Biodiversity Water Civil Protection Soil Waste Land Use Territorial Objectives Cohesion territorial quality territorial efficiency territorial identity General Territorial Trend Specific Environmental Trend + Story line (increasing/decreasing effect) + Best needed/available indicators

Example Story line: The territorial efficiency gets benefit from the gradual increase in total activity rate, but reserving the land for protected areas may have negative impact on it. Reservation of land for protection areas prevents other use of land and may hinder other important activities in the region. Indicator for case study Finland: % of people working in mining or quarrying industry X % of NATURA 2000 network area of the whole region decreasing effect: -1 increasing effect: +2

…and maps: Natura 2000 network area x mining workers X

… and more maps and indicators under development

Contact ESPON Territorial Trends and Policy Impacts in the Field of EU Environmental Policy Geological Survey of Finland (GTK)