This report is a broad assessment of soil conditions in the pan-European region. It describes the degradation of soil, its relevance in the European and global contexts, and the links between soil and sustainable development. The report is mainly addressed to policy makers and the general public.

This report has been prepared in the framework of the EEA annual work programme, as part of the work plan of the former European Topic Centre on Soil. It contains a proposal for the establishment of a comprehensive framework for monitoring, assessing and reporting on soil conditions in Europe.

This report contains a summary of EEA work on the development of a European soil monitoring and assessment framework for soil since 1999. The framework is being designed as a basis for the work needed to support policy developments within the European Community as well as the EEA reporting...

Information on the national relevance and data availability of a proposed list of policy-relevant indicators on soil contamination from local and diffuse sources is provided in this report. It constitutes the final output of a working group on soil contamination indicators and analyses the...

As a part of the work programme of the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) has compiled a first version of a European marine database 'Marinebase'. This database on water quality parameters covers aggregated data related to eutrophication...

Nearly 87 % of the Black Sea is entirely anoxic (without oxygen) and contains high levels of hydrogen sulphide. This is the result of past geological events, its shape and its specific water balance (high degree of isolation from the world ocean, deep water depression with a maximum depth of 2...

The North Sea is a shallow and rather young ecosystem formed by the flooding of a landmass some 20 000 years ago. Its coasts and waters are still being colonised by new species from the Atlantic. The strong coupling between benthic and pelagic communities in the shallow parts of the sea makes it...

The North-east Atlantic Ocean is a part of the Atlantic Ocean and is dominated by deep ocean basins, except the Celtic Sea, the shelf along the Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast. The formation of the North Atlantic deep water is one of the driving forces for the thermohaline circulation of the...

Eutrophication is the enhanced primary production of marine algae due to excessive supply of nutrients from human activities, independent of the natural productivity level of the sea area in question. The main objectives of this report are to evaluate the causes, state and development of...