EU Ecosystem Assessment - Urban Ecosystem

Air pollutants emissions: Pressure indicator. Total air pollutants emission inside Functional Urban Areas. Air pollutants concentration: environmental quality indicator. Average air pollutants concentrations inside Functional Urban Areas. Municipal waste generated: Municipal waste are waste collected and treated by or for municipalities. It covers waste from households, including bulky waste, similar waste from commerce and trade, office buildings, institutions and small businesses, as well as yard and garden waste, street sweepings, the contents of litter containers, and market cleansing waste if managed as household waste. The definition excludes waste from municipal sewage networks and treatment, as well as waste from construction and demolition activities. This indicator is measured in thousand-tonnes and in kilograms per capita. Soil sealing: the indicator estimates the increase in sealed soil surfaces with impervious materials due to urban development and construction (e.g. buildings, constructions and laying of completely or partially impermeable artificial material, such as asphalt, metal, glass, plastic or concrete). Noise pollution from roads: Noise exposure information are reported under the END Directive (2002/49/EC) per agglomerations (cities with more than 100000 inhabitants). The database (updated regularly by the EEA) contains information on the number of people exposed to 55 decibel (dB) bands. In this assessment, for comparative purposes, we use the percentage of people exposed to harmful noise levels derived from roads. Status of bathing water quality: the EU Bathing Waters Directive requires Member States to identify popular bathing places in fresh and coastal waters and monitor them for indicators of microbiological pollution (and other substances) throughout the bathing season, which runs from May to September. Bathing places are classified with reference to their quality status (from poor to excellent). A total of 21831 locations are monitored in EU28, 35.3% of the sample points are within FUAs, most of them in coastal water bodies and lake water bodies. Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - cities and greater cities (Code: urb_cpop1). Population on 1 January by age groups and sex - functional urban areas (Code: urb_lpop1 ). Land Composition: describes 3 aspects of land composition: 1) Proportion of dominant and prevalent land cover types per Functional Urban Areas; 2) the direction of land type change; 3) the magnitude of change. Urban form describes the Degree of settlements dispersion per Functional urban Areas. The indicator reports 2 aspects of settlements dispersion: 1) Urban Form [dimensionless] 2) Share of FUA grid classified as: - Highly compact (%) - Compact (%) - Continuous (%) - Not-built (%) The annual trend of vegetation cover inside Urban Green Infrastructure describes: - Greennest variation within The Urban Green Infrastructure in Core cities and Commuting zones (densely built-up and not densely built up). - Balance between areas with a strong increase of vegetation cover (greening) and with a strong decrease of vegetation cover (browning).