 |
|
| |
|
|
Information
sources: http://www.eea.eu.int/ [last online access:
22.11.06] |
|
|
 |
The
European Environment Agency (EEA) |
| |
"was established under Council Regulation (EC) No. 1210/90,
amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 933/1999", and is
a European Community body which aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable
improvement in Europe's environment through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable
information to policy making agents and the public.
One of the aims of the European Environment Agency (EEA) is
to produce
-
objective,
-
reliable and
-
comparable information.
For the evaluation of the state and trend of nature in Europe information
on species is needed amongst others such as habitats and important sites.
The EAA focuses on biotopes (called "sites")
of European importance for nature conservation. The term "biotope" was used to describe geographical
entities of significance for nature conservation. Subsequently, these bio-geographical units are referred to as "sites",
defined as:
-
An area of land or a water body which forms
an ecological unit of Community significance for nature conservation, regardsless of whether this area is formally protected
by legislation.
"Community significance"
is determined by one or more OBJECTIVE SCIENTIFIC CRITERIA, which were developed
by the Biotopes Team. The basis for these criteria is the assumption that the long-term conservation of species
requires preservation of their full genetic diversity in order to guarantee their adaptive capacity. A similar approach
is taken to ensure a balanced representation of the whole range of geographical diversity of important habitats, essential
to their maintenance as a significant natural resource of the Community - online
 EEA,
Topic report No 27/1996.
|
| |
|
|
The information on the above mentioned sites, provided by the EEA,
comes from a wide range of sources.
But the basic data sets comes from the 1985 founded "Coordination
of information on the environment" (called CORINE). It was a prototype project working on many different
environmental issues (from land cover and habitat classification to soil erosion). The CORINE
databases and several of its programmes have been taken over by the EEA. [last
online access: 20.08.11]
|
| |
|
 |
One
major source of the EEA (founded by the EEA) |
| |
is the European environment information
and observation network (online Eionet)
with its different European Topic Centres (ETCs), located in different European
countries (cf. list of actual ETCs below!). [last
online access: 20.08.11]
The EEA is
responsible for developing the network and coordinating the activities of Eionet.
|
| |
|
|
Other important tools and institutions of Eionet
are e.g.: [last
online access: 20.08.11]
|
| |
|
|
"The European
topic centres (ETCs) designated to date are multi-institutional (multi-organisational) consortia consisting
of a lead organisation, which provides the ETC manager and a number (currently between 7 and 12) of partner organisations
(ETC partners). Thus, an ETC consortium consists of ETC lead organisation and ETC partners." Definition by EEA.
[last online access: 27.01.05]
The EEA Management Board designated ETCs often for
a limited period of time.
|
| |
|
| |
Its European Topic Centres -
e.g. - on Nature Protection and Biodiversity (ETC-NPB / Paris) supports the Agency by collecting, harmonising
and analysing data for European environmental indicators and reports on nature and biodiversity.
-
The ETC-NPB in Paris is responsible for the development of the
EUNIS habitat classification categories!
|
| |
|
|
The
European environment information and observation network - Eionet |
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
The EEA works closely together
with national focal points (NFPs) - sometimes called national focal centres (NFCs) -, typically national
environment agencies or environment ministries in the member states. |
| |
|
|
|
| |
[last updated on 20.08.2011] |
 |
|
| |
|
 |
Basic
Information on data collection,
management and analysis |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Introduction
of EEA - (Brochure), 6 pp. |
0,82MB |
| |
 |
|
Environment
Assessment Report (EEA EAR No.10, 2003), 344 pp. |
12,71MB |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Terms
& Definitions:
(according to Oxford Concise Dictionary of Ecology, 1996, partly modified) |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Biotope: |
|
A clearly
recognizable > environmental region characterized by certain conditions and populated by a characteristic
> biota. It is the smallest possible geographic region of a > habitat. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Biosphere: |
|
The part of
the Earth's environment in which living organisms are found, and with which they interact to produce a steady-state
system, effectively a whole-planet > ecosystem. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Biota: |
|
Plants and
animals occupying a place together (e.g. marine biota, terrestrial biota etc.) |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Biotic: |
|
Applied to
the living components of the > biosphere or of an > ecosystem, as distinct from the abiotic
physical and chemical components. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Ecology: |
|
The scientific
study of the interrelationships among organisms and between organisms, and between them and all aspects, living
and non-living, of their > environment. The German Ernst Heinrich Haeckel is usually credited with having
coined the word 'Ökologie' (ecology) in 1866. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Ecosystem: |
|
Ecological
System: A term first used by the British ecologist A.G. Tansley in 1935 to describe a discrete unit that consists
of living and non-living parts, interacting to form a stable system. Fundamental concepts include the flow of
energy via food-chains and food-webs, and the cycling of nutrients biogeochemically. Ecosystem principles can
be applied at all scales. Principles that apply to an ephemeral pond, for example, apply equally to a lake, an
ocean, or the whole planet.
In Russian and central European literature 'biogeocoenosis' describes the same
concept. |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Environment: |
|
The complete
range of external conditions, physical and biological, in which an organism lives. Environment includes social,
cultural, and (for humans) economic and political considerations, as well as the more usually understood features
such as soil, climate, and food supply. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Habitat: |
|
A habitat
(from the Latin habitare for "it inhabits") is the place where a particular organism usually
lives or grows.
With other words: It is the living place of an organism or community, characterized by its
physical or > biotic properties.
Habitat type is defined for the purposes of the
EUNIS habitat type classification as follows:
'Plant and animal
communities as the characterising elements of the biotic environment, together with abiotic factors operating
together at a particular scale.'
All factors included in the definition are addressed in the descriptive
framework of the habitat classification (criteria & descriptions - Febr. 2002). |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
