Changing face of Europe — explore the land resources - EEA

Europe is a mosaic of landscapes, reflecting the revolutionary pattern of changes that land use has undergone in the past. Today, though less drastic and eye-catching, changes continue to alter our landscape and environment, leaving large and often irreversible land-use footprints. Tensions are rising almost everywhere between society’s need for resources and space, and the capacity of the land to support and absorb these needs. This is leading to unprecedented changes in landscapes, ecosystems and the environment.

On the website of the European Environment Agency you can now through an excellent online viewer see the land use changes in Europe, comparing the situation between 1990 and 2000. Through activating of layers, you can see and compare, for example, urban fabric or agricoltural landscape coverage, roads, forests, wetlands and so on. You can download the landcover data in shapefile (.shp) format, too.
Here you can see our part of the High Coast.

At this link you can deepen the argument, following the reports, maps and plenty of informations that the EEA really complete and easy-to-use website offers.

If you jump at our Bookshelf (or search within our News), you will find the EEA's technical report nr. 9/2007 "Land-use scenarios for Europe: Qualitative and quantitative analysis on a European scale" (PRELUDE) which will help you to understand the grid lines which drove this studio.
Font: European Environment Agency - www.eea.eu