The grid is based on proposal at the 1st European Workshop on Reference Grids in 2003 and later INSPIRE geographical grid systems. The sample grid available here is part of a set of three polygon grids in 1, 10 and 100 kilometres. The grids cover at least country borders and, where applicable, marine Exclusive Economic Zones v7.0, http://www.marineregions.org. Note that the extent of the grid into the marine area does not reflect the extent of the territorial waters.

The Urban Atlas is providing pan-European comparable land use and land cover data for Large Urban Zones with more than 100.000 inhabitants as defined by the Urban Audit. Urban Atlas' mission is to provide high-resolution hotspot mapping of changes in urban spaces and indicators for users such as city governments, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and European Commission departments.

The grid is based on proposal at the 1st European Workshop on Reference Grids in 2003 and later INSPIRE geographical grid systems. The sample grid available here is part of a set of three polygon grids in 1, 10 and 100 kilometres. The grids cover at least country borders and, where applicable, marine Exclusive Economic Zones v7.0, http://www.marineregions.org. Note that the extent of the grid into the marine area does not reflect the extent of the territorial waters.

The Urban Atlas is providing pan-European comparable land use and land cover data for Large Urban Zones with more than 100.000 inhabitants as defined by the Urban Audit. Urban Atlas' mission is to provide high-resolution hotspot mapping of changes in urban spaces and indicators for users such as city governments, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and European Commission departments.

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.

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).

Corine Land Cover Change 1990-2000 (CHA9000) is one of the Corine Land Cover (CLC) datasets produced within the frame the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service referring to changes in land cover / land use status between the years 1990 and 2000. CHA is derived from satellite imagery by direct mapping of changes taken place between two consecutive inventories, based on image-to-image comparison. CLC service has a long-time heritage (formerly known as "CORINE Land Cover Programme"), coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA). It provides consistent and thematically detailed information on land cover and land cover changes across Europe. CLC datasets are based on the classification of satellite images produced by the national teams of the participating countries - the EEA members and cooperating countries (EEA39). National CLC inventories are then further integrated into a seamless land cover map of Europe. The resulting European database relies on standard methodology and nomenclature with following base parameters: 44 classes in the hierarchical 3-level CLC nomenclature; minimum mapping unit (MMU) for status layers is 25 hectares; minimum width of linear elements is 100 metres. Change layers have higher resolution, i.e. minimum mapping unit (MMU) is 5 hectares for Land Cover Changes (CHA), and the minimum width of linear elements is 100 metres. The CLC service delivers important data sets supporting the implementation of key priority areas of the Environment Action Programmes of the European Union as e.g. protecting ecosystems, halting the loss of biological diversity, tracking the impacts of climate change, monitoring urban land take, assessing developments in agriculture or dealing with water resources directives. CLC belongs to the Pan-European component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (https://land.copernicus.eu/), part of the European Copernicus Programme coordinated by the European Environment Agency, providing environmental information from a combination of air- and space-based observation systems and in-situ monitoring. Additional information about CLC product description including mapping guides can be found at https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/. CLC class descriptions can be found at https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/corine-land-cover-nomenclature-guidelines/html/.

CORINE Land Cover (CLC) was specified to standardize data collection on land in Europe to support environmental policy development. The reference year of first CLC inventory was 1990 (CLC1990), and the first update created in 2000. Later the update cycle has become 6 years. The number of participating countries has increased over time − currently includes 33 European Environment Agency (EEA) member countries and six cooperating countries (EEA39) with a total area of over 5.8 Mkm2. Ortho-corrected high spatial resolution satellite images provide the geometrical and thematic basis for mapping. In-situ data (topographic maps, ortho-photos and ground survey data) are essential ancillary information. The project is coordinated by the EEA in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme and implemented by national teams under the management and quality control (QC) of the EEA. The basic technical parameters of CLC (i.e. 44 classes in nomenclature, 25 hectares minimum mapping unit (MMU) and 100 meters minimum mapping width) have not changed since the beginning, therefore the results of the different inventories are comparable. The layer of CORINE Land Cover Changes (CLCC) is produced since the second CLC inventory (CLC2000). CLCC is derived from satellite imagery by direct mapping of changes taken place between two consecutive inventories, based on image-to-image comparison. Change mapping applies a 5 ha MMU to pick up more details in CLCC layer than in CLC status layer. Integration of national CLC and CLCC data includes some harmonization along national borders. Two European validation studies have shown that the achieved thematic accuracy is above the specified minimum (85 %). Primary CLC and CLCC data are in vector format with polygon topology. Derived products in raster format are also available. The seamless European CLC and CLCC time series data (CLC1990, CLC2000, CLC2006, CLC2012 and related CLCC data) are distributed in the standard European Coordinate Reference System defined by the European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (ETRS89) datum and Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area (LAEA) projection (EPSG: 3035). Results of the CLC inventories can be downloaded from Copernicus Land site free of charge for all users. CLC data can contribute to a wide range of studies with European coverage, e.g.: ecosystem mapping, modelling the impacts of climate change, landscape fragmentation by roads, abandonment of farm land and major structural changes in agriculture, urban sprawl, water management.

The dataset contains information on the European river basin districts delineated for the 1st River Basin Management Plans (RBMP) under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The information was reported to the European Commission under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) reporting obligations. The dataset compiles the available spatial data related to the 1st RBMPs which were due in 2010 (hereafter WFD2010). See http://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/521 for further information on the WFD2010 reporting. It was prepared to support the reporting of the 2nd RBMPs due in 2016 (hereafter WFD2016). See http://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/715 for further information on the WFD2016 reporting. The data reported in WFD2010 were updated using data reported in WFD2016, whenever the spatial objects are identical in 2010 and 2016. For WFD2010 objects, some information may be missing, if the objects no longer exist in the 2nd River Basin Management Plans, and were not reported in WFD2016. This dataset updates the information published in "WISE River basin districts (RBD) - version 1.4, Jun. 2011" (http://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/3be396a5-dded-4492-a620-f42d9f4aba5c) Relevant concepts: River basin district: The area of land and sea, made up of one or more neighbouring river basins together with their associated groundwaters and coastal waters, which is the main unit for management of river basins. River basin: The area of land from which all surface run-off flows through a sequence of streams, rivers and, possibly, lakes into the sea at a single river mouth, estuary or delta.

The dataset contains information on the European groundwater bodies delineated for the 2nd River Basin Management Plans (RBMP) under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The information was reported to the European Commission under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) reporting obligations. The dataset compiles the available spatial data related to the 2nd RBMPs due in 2016 (hereafter WFD2016). See http://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/715 for further information on the WFD2016 reporting. Relevant concepts: Groundwater body: 'Body of groundwater' means a distinct volume of groundwater within an aquifer or aquifers. Groundwater: All water which is below the surface of the ground in the saturation zone and in direct contact with the ground or subsoil. Aquifer: Subsurface layer or layers of rock or other geological strata of sufficient porosity and permeability to allow either a significant flow of groundwater or the abstraction of significant quantities of groundwater.