Europe's Changing Landscape

The European Environment Agency (EEA), assisted by the European Space Agency Earth Observation Directorate, has published the Image2000 survey, a new virtual atlas that shows trends in the way Europeans use their landscape. The first edition of the virtual atlas, based on 1990 data, attracted more than 10,000 users. A dramatic increase in the number of users can be expected with the new Image2000 survey, as users will have much more detail and can compare the changes over a decade. Both the 1990 and the 2000 survey are part of the EEA programme CORINE (Co-ordination of Information on the Environment) 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. EEA and ESA are both partners in GMES. ESA has assisted in the development of services based on satellite data.