The Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA) is more commonly known as Nationally designated areas. It is the official source of protected area information from European countries to the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA). The inventory began in 1995 under the CORINE programme of the European Commission. It is now one of the agreed Eionet priority data flows maintained by EEA with support from the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity. The CDDA data can be queried online in the European Nature Information System (EUNIS). Geographical coverage of GIS vector boundary data: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo under UNSC Resolution 1244/99, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. EEA does not have permission to distribute some or all sites reported by Estonia, Ireland, Romania and Turkey. When re-using the data, copyright is to be mentioned specifically for Estonia and for Finland: "Estonian Environmental Register 01.01.2017; "©Finnish Environment Institute, 2017".

This dataset represents the regions for levels 1, 2 and 3 of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) for 2016. The NUTS nomenclature is a hierarchical classification of statistical regions and subdivides the EU economic territory into regions of four different levels (NUTS , 1, 2 and 3, moving respectively from larger to smaller territorial units). NUTS 1 is the most aggregated level. An additional Country level (NUTS 0) is also available for countries where the the nation at statistical level does not coincide with the administrative boundaries. For example Mt Athos in Greece and Mellum and Minsener Ogg in Germany. The NUTS classification has been officially established through Regulation (EC) No 2016/2066 of the European Parliament and of the Council and its amendments. A non-official NUTS-like classification has been defined for the EFTA countries and candidate countries. An introduction to the NUTS classification is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/overview. This dataset has been created mainly from the EuroBoundary Map v 12 (Eurogeographics) and geographic information from TurkStat for Turkey. The public dataset is available at 1M, 3M, 10M, 20M, 60M, while the full dataset at 100K is restricted. Coverage is the economic territory of the EU, EFTA countries and candidate countries as in 2016. This metadata only refers to a pre-release version of the full nuts 2016 dataset at 100k (it does not contain Albanian boundaries) and shall only be used internally by the EEA following the conditions stated in the document "GISCO-LicenseconditionsforEGdatasets.pdf" provided with the dataset. This metadata has been slightly adapted from the original metadata file provided by Eurostat (European Commission) and is to be used only for internal EEA purposes. For reference, the original metadata file provided by ESTAT (NUTS_2016.xml) is also available for download together with the dataset. The public datasets, at smaller scales, are available on http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/reference-data/administrative-units-statistical-units/nuts#nuts16.

This dataset represents the regions for levels 1, 2 and 3 of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) for 2013. The NUTS nomenclature is a hierarchical classification of statistical regions and subdivides the EU economic territory into regions of three different levels (NUTS 1, 2 and 3, moving respectively from larger to smaller territorial units). NUTS 1 is the most aggregated level. The NUTS classification has been officially established through Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council and its amendments. A non-official NUTS-like classification has been defined for the EFTA countries and candidate countries. An introduction to the NUTS classification is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/overview. This dataset has been created mainly from the EuroBoundary Map v 8.x (Eurogeographics) and geographic information from TurkStat for Turkey. The public dataset is available at 1M, 3M, 10M, 20M, 60M, while the full dataset at 100K is restricted. Coverage is the economic territory of the EU, EFTA countries and candidate countries as in 2013. This metadata only refers to the full dataset at 100k and shall only be used internally by the EEA following the conditions stated in the document "GISCO-LicenseconditionsforEGdatasets.pdf" provided with the dataset. This metadata has been slightly adapted from the original metadata file provided by Eurostat (European Commission) and is to be used only for internal EEA purposes. For reference, the original metadata file provided by ESTAT (NUTS_2013.xml) is also available for download together with the dataset. The public datasets, at smaller scales, are available on http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/reference-data/administrative-units-statistical-units/nuts#nuts13.

The European inventory of Nationally designated areas (CDDA) holds information about designated areas and their designation types, which directly or indirectly create protected areas. The inventory is delivered by the Eionet partnership countries as spatial and tabular information. The inventory began in 1995 under the CORINE programme of the European Commission. The CDDA is now an agreed annual Eionet core data flow maintained by the European Environment Agency (EEA) with support from the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC/BD). The dataset is used by the EEA and e.g. the UNEP-WCMC for their main European and global assessments, products and services. The CDDA is the official source of protected area information from the 39 European countries to the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA). The CDDA data can be queried online in the European Nature Information System (EUNIS). Geographical coverage of GIS vector boundary data: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo under UNSC Resolution 1244/99, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. EEA does not have permission to distribute some or all sites reported by Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Turkey. Two versions of the dataset are provided. The "CDDA_2018_v01_public_EuropeEPSG3035" version includes only continental Europe, i.e. excludes the overseas entities. The full dataset ("CDDA_2018_v01_public") includes the entire geographical coverage including nationally designated areas in overseas entities. Both versions are provided in GDB and GPKG formats.

The new urban sprawl metric, named "Weighted Urban Proliferation“ (WUP) is based on the following definition of urban sprawl: the more area is built over in a given landscape (amount of built-up area) and the more dispersed this built-up area is in the landscape (spatial configuration), and the higher the uptake of built-up area per inhabitant or job (lower utilisation intensity in the built-up area), the higher the degree of urban sprawl. Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric has three components: the percentage of built-up areas (PBA), the dispersion of the built-up areas (DIS), and land uptake per person (LUP). Besides WUP and its components, the other indicator was calculated: Utilisation Density (UD). UD measures the number of people living and working per km2 of built-up area.

This dataset shows pan-European administrative boundaries down to commune level version 2013. Communes are equivalent to Local Administrative Units, level 2 (LAU2), LAU2 for Greece (EL) are subject to confirmation. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) and the LAU nomenclature are hierarchical classifications of statistical regions that together subdivide the EU economic territory into regions of five different levels (NUTS 1, 2 and 3 and LAU 1, 2, respectively, moving from larger to smaller territorial units). The NUTS classification has been officially established through Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council and amendments. A non official NUTS-like classification has been defined for the non-EU countries. The LAU classification is not covered by any legislative act. An introduction to the NUTS classification is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/overview. The data set is based on EuroBoundaryMap v. 8.x from Eurogeographics. Geographical extent covers the EU28, EFTA countries, and candidate countries. The scale of the data set is 1:100 000. This metadata only refers to the 1:100k version of this dataset and shall only be used internally by the EEA following the conditions stated in the document "GISCO-LicenseconditionsforEGdatasets.pdf" provided with the dataset. This metadata has been slightly adapted from the original metadata file provided by Eurostat (European Commission) and is to be used only for internal EEA purposes. For reference, the original metadata file provided by ESTAT (COMM_2013.xml) is provided together with the dataset. A generalised version of this dataset at 1:1Mio is available for download on http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/reference-data/administrative-units-statistical-units/communes#communes13. Note the generalised version should be used for cartographic purposes.

EuroBoundaryMap provides a European geographic database for administrative and statistical regions that will be maintained at the source level by the National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs), and by providing harmonized access conditions for this geographic information within the framework of EuroGeographics. EBM (1:100 000) offers the combined strength of detailed European administrative units and linkages to the corresponding LAU and NUTS codes. The product EBM v11 is a full update of all countries. More details are available in EBM_v11_Specification.pdf

The European inventory of Nationally designated areas (CDDA) holds information about designated areas and their designation types, which directly or indirectly create protected areas. The inventory is delivered by the Eionet partnership countries as spatial and tabular information. The inventory began in 1995 under the CORINE programme of the European Commission. The CDDA is now an agreed annual Eionet core data flow maintained by the European Environment Agency (EEA) with support from the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC/BD). The dataset is used by the EEA and e.g. the UNEP-WCMC for their main European and global assessments, products and services. The CDDA is the official source of protected area information from the 39 European countries to the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA). The CDDA data can be queried online in the European Nature Information System (EUNIS). Geographical coverage of GIS vector boundary data: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo under UNSC Resolution 1244/99, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. EEA does not have permission to distribute some or all sites reported by Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Turkey. Two versions of the dataset are provided. The full dataset ("CDDA_2019_v01_public") includes the entire geographical coverage including nationally designated areas in overseas entities. The "CDDA_2019_v01_public_EuropeEPSG3035" version includes only continental Europe, i.e. excludes the overseas entities. Both versions are provided in GDB and GPKG formats.

The European inventory of Nationally designated areas (CDDA) holds information about designated areas and their designation types, which directly or indirectly create protected areas. The inventory is delivered by the Eionet partnership countries as spatial and tabular information. The inventory began in 1995 under the CORINE programme of the European Commission. The CDDA is now an agreed annual Eionet core data flow maintained by the European Environment Agency (EEA) with support from the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC/BD). The dataset is used by the EEA and e.g. the UNEP-WCMC for their main European and global assessments, products and services. The CDDA is the official source of protected area information from the 39 European countries to the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA). The CDDA data can be queried online in the European Nature Information System (EUNIS). This metadata refers to the public version of the CDDA dataset version 18 (2020). EEA does not have permission to distribute some or all sites reported by Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Turkey. The internal version of this dataset "Nationally designated areas (CDDA) for internal use - version 18, May 2020", from which is derived from this dataset, contains all designated areas and its access is restricted. Two versions of the public dataset are provided. The full dataset ("CDDA_2020_v01_public") includes the entire geographical coverage including nationally designated areas in overseas entities. The "CDDA_2020_v01_public_EuropeEPSG3035" version includes only continental Europe, i.e. excludes the overseas entities. Both versions are provided in GDB and GPKG formats. The dataset is accompanied by the following tabular data: CDDA_2020_v01_public_DesignatedArea.csv, which includes information on the nationally designated sites and designated boundaries for public dissemination; and CDDA_2020_v01_public_DesignationType.csv, which contains information about designation types and the national and international legislative instruments, which directly or indirectly create protected designated areas in Europe.

EuroBoundaryMap provides a European geographic database for administrative and statistical regions that will be maintained at the source level by the National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs), and by providing harmonized access conditions for this geographic information within the framework of EuroGeographics. EBM (1:100000) offers the combined strength of detailed European administrative units and linkages to the corresponding LAU and NUTS codes. This metadata refers to the version 12 of EBM, which is a full update of all the countries. For more information about the data product specifications and changes with respect to the previous version of this dataset (EBM v11), please refer to the documents EBM_v12_Specification.pdf, EBM_v12_TechnicalGuide.pdf and EBM_v12_Changes.pdf provided with the dataset (Documents.zip) This dataset is only to be used internally in the EEA, for the purposes and under the conditions stated under the "Resource Constraints" elements of this metadata file and on the document "LicenseConditions.pdf" provided with this dataset. This metadata has been slightly adapted from the original metadata file provided by EuroGeographics and is to be used only for internal EEA purposes. For reference, the metadata file created by EuroGeographics is provided together with the dataset ("Metadata_EBM_v12.xml" within the "Descriptions_Metadata.zip")