There is almost no end to the possibilities within the technology, so we focus on first developing services in the fields with the greatest demand', says Oliver Arino of ESA’s Earth Observation Directorate. 'From ESA’s side we view this as a process which is more pulled by the users than pushed by technology. ESA has assisted in the development of services based on satellite data. Some countries – like Denmark – have tried to re-establish fragmented wetlands but this is very expensive'.īoth the 1990 and the new survey are a part of an EEA programme called Corine (Coordination of Information on the Environment). 'One has to take into account that once this fragmentation of the landscape has happened, the situation is practically irreversible. If you look at this development over a 50-year span you will see dramatic consequences for example for wildlife.

Both EEA and ESA are partners in GMES.Īs an example of an area in need of better policies, Steenmans points to the impact of new motorways on the landscape: 'Every day another 10 hectares – the equivalent of 20 football fields – of motorway is constructed in Europe. The project is contributing to shaping Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, which will provide environmental information from a combination of ground-, air- and space-based observation systems. But if you use satellite data over a span of ten years you can really see a difference'. This is not enough for you to really feel the change as dramatic. Each year only a small fraction of the landscape will change its function. 'What we are able to see from satellite data is that the increase in soil that is sealed off by human infrastructure activities is even greater than we anticipated', says Chris Steenmans, Project Manager for Land and Remote Sensing at the EEA. The European Environment Agency (EEA), assisted by ESA's Earth Observation Directorate, is publishing the data on 17 November. This is just one example of the information available from a new virtual atlas of Europe’s landscape based on satellite data. Each day new roads or buildings bury the equivalent of 240 football fields of German soil, around 120 hectares of land.

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