Green Infrastructure
At the heart of Europe’s biodiversity policy is the creation of a Natura 2000 network. This represents the EU’s most important policy mechanism for reaching the goal set at the Gothenburg summit (2001) to halt the decline of biodiversity by 2010. To date the network includes more than 22,000 sites, covering a total area of about 90 million hectares, which is about 20% of the EU’s territory.
The aim of this project is to develop a new spatial vision for the green infrastructure of the European Union ensuring sustainable management of natural resources, adaptation to accelerated climate change and preservation of biodiversity. This green infrastructure study assesses the conditions for landscape connectivity on a European scale. It takes into account the present situation of land use as well as future land use developments. The latter are explored through socio-economic trends and expected changes that affect the landscape connectivity and, consequently, the conservation of natural habitats and species. More information about the project can be found on the DG environment website.
RIKS’ input to the study has been twofold. First, we have made an assessment of historic land use trends in the EU. Second, we have explored future land use dynamics based on these land use trends and two socio-economic scenarios. Modelling of future scenarios has been carried out using a Metronamica application incorporated in the LUMOCAP Policy Support System.
The project consortium was led by ATECMA. Other partners were Tersyn, Ecosystems, and EEZA-CSIC.