What Does Eea Stand for in European

Missions and Sensors

S. Jutz , M.P. Milagro-Pérez , in Comprehensive Remote Sensing, 2018

1.06.3 In Situ Component

The Copernicus in situ component, coordinated by the EEA, focuses on data acquired by a multitude of airborne and ground-based monitoring networks supporting Copernicus services and validation (see Fig. 11 ). The measurement networks are owned and operated at regional, national, and international levels inside and outside the EU. The EEA has documented the required in situ data, identified gaps, and developed a suitable framework for open access to the sources of these data. EEA is also exploring how the future management (governance, architecture) of the in situ component during an operational phase might best be achieved.

The main role of the EEA is therefore to propose sustainable mechanisms for in situ data delivery/access and a sustainable interface between in situ data providers and the Copernicus services, based on existing information capacities (e.g., national systems, European networks). This is carried out making use of the principles of the Shared European Environmental Information System (SEIS) and the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE).

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Optical Remote Sensing in Urban Environments

Xavier Briottet , ... Christiane Weber , in Land Surface Remote Sensing in Urban and Coastal Areas, 2016

1.2.1.1.1 European scale: Urban Atlas

The Urban Atlas database was created by the EEA as part of the European Copernicus program. It concerns exclusively the largest urban areas in Europe. The aim of Urban Atlas is to develop a shared terminology for every city in Europe in order to be able to easily compare them in a rigorous manner or to calculate relevant indicators (Figure 1.7).

Two versions of the Urban Atlas database exist. The 2006 version dealt only with urban areas with a population greater than 100,000, while the 2012 version was extended to cover urban areas with a population greater than 50,000.

The minimal mapping unit for Urban Atlas was set at 0.25 ha, with a minimal size of 10 m for longer objects. Urban Atlas was produced using satellite images with a resolution of 2.5 m and topographical maps with a scale of 1:50000.

The classification legend of Urban Atlas is hierarchical, featuring three levels and a total of 17 different classes.

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Aquatic Environment

V.J. Inglezakis , ... A.N. Menegaki , in Environment and Development, 2016

3.7 Water Pollution

Although water pollution is a common topic in many books and articles, there is not a widely accepted definition about it. There could be many reasons for this. The lack of a unanimous definition could be explained by the fact that most people have an idea about what is meant by "water pollution." Another reason could be that a strict definition could be considered superfluous. Moreover, there are many definitions found in many official documents, which may differ in both the details and fundamental aspects. This could be attributed to the fact that these definitions have been used in different contexts and served different purposes [30].

According to Inglezakis and Poulopoulos [4], "water-quality deterioration can be attributed to water pollution or contamination. Water pollution is generally defined as any physical, chemical, or biological alteration in water quality that has a negative impact on living organisms."

Searching the term through the site of the European Environment Agency (EEA), the following definition provided by Wikipedia is given ⁶ : "Pollution is the introduction of substances or energy into the environment, resulting in deleterious effects of such a nature as to endanger human health, harm living resources and ecosystems, and impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment".

According to the Water Framework Directive [3], "Pollution means the direct or indirect introduction, as a result of human activity, of substances or heat into the air, water or land which may be harmful to human health or the quality of aquatic ecosystems or terrestrial ecosystems directly depending on aquatic ecosystems, which result in damage to material property, or which impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment."

In the stricter sense, pollution can be defined as the transfer of any substance to the environment. However, there is a tolerance limit for each pollutant, since zero-level pollution is economically and technically unpractical [4]. So, in these cases the term contamination is more appropriate. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ⁷ contamination is the presence of elevated concentrations of substances in the environment above the natural background level for the area and for the organism.

Contamination of water by physical and bacteriological agents, whether it is drinking water, ice water, or harbor water, may be detected by laboratory tests. Test results are usually expressed in parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb) for physical parameters, and bacterial counts per 100 mL for organisms. For both types of contaminants, maximum levels are usually stipulated and these levels may differ from country to country.

There is a great variety in the classification of the types of water pollution in the relevant literature, depending on the subject of categorization. An important discrimination for study, technological solutions, or law purposes refers to the kind of the source. Specifically, the sources of water pollution are divided into

•: point sources, such as chemical industries and human communities, and
•: nonpoint or diffuse sources, such as agricultural activities and landfill leachates.

Almost all human activities have adverse impacts on water. Water quality is influenced by both direct point source and diffuse pollution, which come from urban and rural populations, industrial emissions, and farming. Diffuse pollution from farming, and point source pollution from sewage treatment and industrial discharge are principal sources. For agriculture, the key pollutants include nutrients, pesticides, sediments, and fecal microbes. Oxygen-consuming substances and hazardous chemicals are more associated with point source discharges. Point sources are mainly responsible for the pollution of surface waters (rivers, lakes, seas), whereas nonpoint sources mainly contribute to the pollution of groundwater resources. Moreover, releases from point sources can be treated by wastewater treatment plants, whereas nonpoint source releases can only be minimized.

So, depending on the type of source, we divide water pollution into point source pollution and diffuse pollution.

If the specific source is taken into account, one can describe water pollution as industrial pollution if it is related to industrial activities, sewage pollution if it is connected to sewage disposals from urban and rural areas, or agricultural pollution if it is about nutrients, pesticides, or other chemicals used in agricultural activities.

Although not so common, water pollution can be also termed by the extent it appears. So, the term transboundary pollution is also used to describe polluted waters traveling through rivers or oceans from one country or even continent to another.

Depending on the water receiver, water pollution can be characterized as

•: surface water pollution, if it refers to the pollution of lakes, rivers, oceans, and any surface waters in general, and
•: groundwater pollution, if it refers to the pollution of water that is held in underground rock structures known as aquifers.

The latter one is by far less obvious and in many cases, more difficult to treat.

Whatever the context and the terminology we may use, it is equally or even more important to classify the types of water pollutants, since their knowledge will also indicate the technological solution to be implemented. So, the various types of water pollutants can be classified into the following major categories [4].

Thermal pollution. The discharge of warm wastewaters into a surface receiver may lead to the increase in temperature of waters, which in turn will result in the decrease in the oxygen concentration in water. A lot of aquatic species are sensitive to oxygen concentration in waters, and such variations could cause the immediate elimination of the most sensitive aquatic life. Temperature changes may also cause changes in the reproductive periods of fishes, growth of parasites and diseases, or even thermal shock to the animals found in the thermal plume.

Organic pollutants. They are further categorized into oxygen-demanding wastes and persistent organic chemicals.

Oxygen-demanding wastes. The release of biodegradable organic compounds into water bodies results in the decrease in the oxygen dissolved in water due to its consumption by the aquatic microorganisms that decay the organic pollutants. A minimum of 6 mg of oxygen per liter of water is essential to support aquatic life. A few species, like carp, can survive in low-oxygen waters. Each biodegradable waste is characterized by the biological oxygen demand (BOD), which is a measure of the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aquatic microorganisms for the degradation of waste. They are found in water bodies mainly by industrial processes and agricultural activities.

Persistent organic chemicals (POPs). This term is used for synthetic organic compounds that show great resistance and high life spans in the environment, thus constituting a long-term danger to life. Dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and pesticides (DDT and others) are man-made compounds that remain intact for months in the environment. Consequently, people and animals at the top of the food chain eventually consume food containing these compounds. DDT, a popular compound that helped in the elimination of malaria, was proved to have many adverse effects on natural life.

Oils. These are complex mixtures of hydrocarbons that are generally degradable under bacterial action, with the biodegradation rate being dependent on the oil. Oil spills, leaks from oil pipes, and wastewaters from industrial production and refineries are the main sources of oil into water.

Nutrients and agriculture runoff. The excess presence of plant nutrients, like nitrates and phosphorous, in the environment through agricultural activities directly, or indirectly through agriculture runoff, may cause the problem of eutrophication. Eutrophication is the rapid depletion of dissolved oxygen in a body of water because of an increase in biological productivity. Moreover, high nitrogen levels in the water supply cause a potential health risk, especially to infants less than 6 months. This is when the methemoglobin results in a decrease in the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood (blue baby disease) as nitrate ions in the blood readily oxidize ferrous ions in the hemoglobin.

Inorganic pollutants. Metals, nonmetals, and acids/bases released by human activities severely deteriorate water quality, since they are toxic even at concentrations of parts per million. Particularly, heavy metals are extremely dangerous to human health and aquatic life, since they are accumulated in the environment and the food chain.

Pathogens. Pathogenic microorganisms, like viruses, bacteria, and protozoans, are released into water bodies through the discharge of sewage wastes, and wastewaters from animal industries like slaughterhouses. They are responsible for waterborne diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, polio, and infectious hepatitis in humans.

Suspended solids and sediments. Another type of pollution involves the disruption of sediments (fine-grained powders) that flow from rivers into the sea. They comprise of silt, sand, and minerals eroded from land. These appear in the water through the surface runoff during rainy season and through municipal sewers. This can lead to the siltation and reduces storage capacities of reservoirs. Moreover, during construction work, soil, rock, and other fine powders sometimes enter nearby rivers in large quantities, causing it to become turbid. The extra sediment can block the gills of fish, effectively suffocating them.

Radioactive pollutants. They may originate from the mining and processing of ores; use of radioactive isotopes in research, agriculture, medical, and industrial activities; radioactive discharges from nuclear power plants and nuclear reactors; and finally the testing and/or use of nuclear weapons. These isotopes are toxic to all life forms; they accumulate in the bones and teeth and can cause serious disorders.

It is useful to recall that while road transport and combustion installations, mainly of the energy sector, are the most important sources of air pollutants, agriculture and metal industry activities constitute the major polluters for water bodies [4].

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Green Chemistry

Béla Török , Timothy Dransfield , in Green Chemistry, 2018

1.1.4.5 European Union

The European Union established its main environmental agency, the European Environment Agency (EEA), in 1990, which became operational in 1994. The agency has 33 member states (28 EU members and Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, and Turkey). Six additional countries from the Balkans work with the Agency as cooperating countries. Given the nature of the European Union, most member countries had established their own environmental agencies long before the EEA, such as the Federal Environmental Agency (and others) in Germany (1974), the Environment Agency in the United Kingdom (1995), the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy in France (since 1974 under various names), just to name a few. Thus the EEA's role is mainly to provide independent information on the environment. They are the major EU information source for policy makers as well as the general public, integrating the principals of sustainability into political and economic decisions.

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Volume 4

Vincent Nedellec , ... Joseph V. Spadaro , in Encyclopedia of Environmental Health (Second Edition), 2019

Damage costs of trace pollutants release by industrial sectors in EU28

The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) hosted by the European Environment Agency (EEA) published updated data, providing details of Europe's largest emitting facilities for selected key pollutants in 2015. For cadmium, mercury and lead, the top 10 European emitters released a total amount of 129,900 kg (Table 6). One of these facilities is a combustion power plant; the other nine are metallurgy facilities (all of which are coal fired). With our estimated damage costs for the three metals, we find a total cost of 4092 million €₂₀₁₃.

Table 6. Damage costs of the top 10 emitting facilities in EU28

	Top 10 EU28 facilities Total annual releases (kg)	Unit damage costs (mean estimates in €₂₀₁₃/kg)	Damage costs (€₂₀₁₃)	% of total damage cost	σ _g	Damage cost 68% CI low (€₂₀₁₃)	Damage cost 68% CI high (€₂₀₁₃)
Cd	1618	157,294	255 M€	2%	4.1	22 M€	382 M€
Hg	633	22,937	15 M€	0.1%	4.1	1 M€	22 M€
Pb	127,630	29,954	3823 M€	28%	4.1	325 M€	5734 M€
NO_x	208,900,000	16.30	3405 M€	25%	3	620 M€	5587 M€
PM₁₀	16,620,000	39.00	648 M€	5%	3	118 M€	1063 M€
SO_x	322,800,000	17.50	5649 M€	42%	3	1030 M€	9268 M€
Total	548,449,882		13,794 M€	100%		2117 M€	22,056 M€

Source of emissions data is EEA. Detailed emissions of each metal are available at: http://prtr.ec.europa.eu/#/facilitylevels. Note that only cadmium emissions are registered for all the 10 facilities. Mercury emissions are missing for four facilities, and for lead one facility is missing. CI, confidence interval.

For nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and sulfur oxides (SO_x), the top 10 emitters are all combustion power plants. For particulate matter (PM₁₀), there are three combustion power plants and seven metallurgy facilities. The unit damage costs estimated by others (see Further Reading section) for classical air pollutants (NO_x, SO_x, PM₁₀) were respectively 16.3, 17.5, and 39.0 €₂₀₁₃/kg. The total σ _g of the three pollutants was estimated to be 3. As shown in Table 6, despite metal emissions amounted to between two and three orders of magnitude less than classical air pollutants, total damage costs of the three metals are much higher than PM₁₀ and just above NO_x. This conclusion applies only to these coal fired facilities and should not be generalized to other sources of pollution without caution.

EEA provides further sources of information about pollutant releases to air in Europe: the European Union emission inventory report 1990–2015 under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). Based on fuel sold, this inventory provides further interesting information about trace pollutants. Historic data analysis shows a strong decrease in total release between 1990 and 2013 of: arsenic (− 64%); cadmium (− 66%), mercury (− 73%); lead (− 92%), and dioxins (− 84%). Thanks to European regulations, air emission limits have been progressively reduced for industry, transport, agriculture, and the residential sector. Lead emissions experienced the largest decline due to the introduction of unleaded gasoline in the transport sector.

However, industrial emissions remain considerable (see Fig. 2). Lead emissions (1902 tonnes released per year) are by far the highest across all of the trace pollutants emitted to air in Europe. The descending order for the other trace elements are As > Cd > Hg. We exclude dioxins from this ranking because the released quantity is fortunately very much lower than trace element emissions (1.9 kg/year).

When emission quantities (in kg/year) are multiplied by unit damage costs (in €/kg, taken from Table 5, column "discounted with threshold"), the ranking order of trace pollutants substantially changes (see Fig. 3). Lead contributes by far the largest damage cost, followed by cadmium. The share of the total damage cost from dioxin emissions is less than 1%. For waste incineration, dioxins account for 5% of the total damage cost.

We now turn to the policy implications of the damage costs. If one sought to reduce health impacts from air pollution, it would be preferable to target lead or cadmium than the other trace pollutants. For example, if lead and cadmium emissions from industries with combustion were reduced by half, the decrease in total damage cost (sum of all trace pollutants emitted from the three industrial sectors = 30,862 million €₂₀₁₃) would decline by about 53% (16,280 million €₂₀₁₃).

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Feasibility of Festuca rubra L. native grass in phytoremediation

Gordana Gajić , ... Pavle Pavlović , in Phytoremediation Potential of Perennial Grasses, 2020

2.3 Ecology of F. rubra L.

F. rubra belongs to the life form of hemicryptophytes (Kojić et al., 1997). This grass is well-adapted to different ecological conditions and habitats (Fig. 6.6). F. rubra is capable to grow in the conditions of both light and shading (semisciophyte), warm and cold (mesothermophyte), humid and dry (submesophyte), on the soils that are rich in available nitrogen content (mesotrophyte), and can grow in neutral or slightly acidic soils (neutrophyte) (Smoliak et al., 1981; Hallsten et al., 1987; Kojić et al., 1997).

Therefore, F. rubra tolerates high and low temperatures, drought, flooding during spring as well as water logging due to artificial irrigation. Furthermore, it can grow on the sandy, loam, and clay soils that can be moderately rich or poor in nutrients (Smoliak et al., 1981). According to Carroll (1943) survival rate of F. rubra was 60%–80% at −10°C whereas at −15°C, percentage of survival was low. This grass occurs on soils with pH from 4.5 to 6.0 (Vogel, 1981), but it can grow on pH = 8 (Engelhardt and Hawkins, 2016). In addition, F. rubra tolerates salinity (Smoliak et al., 1981), from 3–6 dS/m (Marcum, 1999) to 6–10 dS/m (Uddin and Juraimi, 2013), and 8–12 dS/m (Butler et al., 1971, depending on subspecies and cultivars. According to Rozema et al. (1978), salt tolerance was higher in F. rubra spp. litoralis than in F. rubra spp. arenaria and F. rubra spp. rubra, and that was related to their capability to accumulate more proline and less Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions than in non-tolerant ecotypes. Zhang et al. (2013) noted that F. rubra had high salt tolerance in comparison to the numerous turfgrass species in hydroponic system. Furthermore, F. rubra showed high resistance to invasion of weed and weed suppression by this grass was > 70%–80% (McKernan et al., 2001; Bertin et al., 2009).

2.3.1 Habitats and plant communities of F. rubra L.

F. rubra grows in pastures and meadows, sand dunes, rock ledges, and wetland habitats, such as sea cliffs, river banks, bogs, and (salt) marshes (Hitchcock, 1951; Voss, 1972; Hickman, 1993) (Fig. 6.6). It can be found in the grass community from the sea level to very high elevations of mountain top vegetation, such as: Alaska (396–914 m, Elliot et al., 1987), California (0–2743 m, Hickman, 1993), Colorado (2134–4115 m, Dittberner and Olson, 1983), Montana (975–1524 m, Dittberner and Olson, 1983), and Utah (1372–2835 m, Dittberner and Olson, 1983). In Serbia, F. rubra belongs to meadows and pasture vegetation and occurs in meadow communities of valleys and hilly-mountainous areas (1000–1600 m), on serpentine and lime substrate (Kojić et al., 1998) (Fig. 6.6).

According to EUNIS classification of habitats, which is a standard classification of European habitats developed by the European Environment Agency ( http://eunis.eea.europa.eu/), F. rubra occurs in many habitat types (herbaceous and forest). In Europe particularly, significant populations are noted as follows (EUNIS, in press):

•: British heavy metal grasslands (code E1.B11): formations, in particular of Wales and the Pennines, developed in the vicinity of former mining operations or on river gravels, with Minuartia verna, Thlaspi caerulescens, Armeria maritima, Viola lutea, Festuca ovina s.l., F. rubra s.l., Agrostis capillaris (Agrostis tenuis).
•: Atlantic F. rubra-A. stolonifera swards (code A2.5313): upper saltmarsh communities of the Atlantic.
•: F. rubra mid-upper saltmarshes (code A2.53A).
•: Mid-upper saltmarshes: sub-communities of F. rubra with A. stolonifera, Juncus gerardi, Puccinellia maritima, Glaux maritima, Triglochin maritima, Armeria maritima, and Plantago maritima (code A2.53B).
•: Mid-upper saltmarshes: Artemisia maritima with F. rubra (code A2.539).
•: Nardus stricta swards (code E1.71): Mesophile and xerophileNardus stricta-dominated or -rich grasslands of Atlantic or sub-Atlantic lowland, collinar, and montane regions of northern Europe, middle Europe and western Iberia.
•: Fenno-Scandian Avenula pratensis-F. rubra grasslands (code E1.7225): dry or mesophile calcareous grasslands of subarctic affinities, limited to the continental middle boreal zone of lowland Sweden and northern Finland and to the middle boreal and arcto-alpine zones of the Scandinavian mountains; dominated by F. rubra, with Botrychium boreale, Botrychium lanceolatum, Botrychium lunaria, Carex brunnescens, Carex ericetorum, Cerastium alpinum, Erigeron borealis, Galium boreale, Gentiana nivalis, Gentianella amarella, Gentianella campestris, Gentianella tenella, Poa glauca, Primula scandinavica, Primula striata.

In Serbia, F. rubra mainly grows in the following habitats according to EUNIS classification (Lakušić et al., 2005):

•: Serpentine steppes (code E1.2B)
•: Middle European Bromus erectus semidry grasslands (code E1.26)
•: Nardus stricta swards (code E1.71)
•: Agrostis - Festuca grasslands (code E1.72)
•: Permanent mesotrophic pastures and aftermath-grazed meadows (code E2.1)
•: Moist or wet eutrophic and mesotrophic grasslands (code E3.4)
•: Moist or wet oligotrophic grasslands (code E3.5)
•: Closed calciphile alpine grasslands (code E4.41).
•: Fagus woodland (code G1.6)

According to Mucina et al. (2016), significant abundance of F. rubra is noted mainly in the communities of the following vegetation alliances:

•: Mat-grass dry pastures in the submontane to subalpine belts of the mountain ranges of Central Europe and the Northern Balkans – Nardo-Agrostion tenuis Sillinger 1933 (Nardetalia strictae Preising 1950, Nardetea strictae Rivas Goday et Borja Carbonell in Rivas Goday et Mayor López 1966).
•: Mesic mown meadows on mineral-rich soils in the lowland to submontane belts of temperate Europe – Arrhenatherion elatioris Luquet 1926 (Arrhenatheretalia elatioris Tx. 1931, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea Tx. 1937).

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Atmospheric Environment

S.G. Poulopoulos , in Environment and Development, 2016

Air legislation in Europe

The European legislation and tools in relation with ambient air quality is representative of most similar policies around the world. The European Environment Agency includes a short synopsis of the European legislation in the report "Every Breath We Take" [20]. Action takes place on many directions in order to ensure clean air for all citizens [20].

Targeting pollutants: The European Union sets legally binding and nonbinding limits for its territory for specific air pollutants. Accordingly, the European Law has set standards for PM of certain sizes, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, lead, and other pollutants that may cause either adverse health effects or damage to ecosystems. The European directives currently regulating ambient air concentrations of the main pollutants include the Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, as well as the Directive 2004/107/EC relating to arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air. In the case of noncompliance with these air quality limit and target values, air quality management plans must be developed and implemented in the areas where noncompliance is observed [17].

Targeting emissions: In addition, the Gothenburg Protocol to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) and the EU National Emission Ceilings Directive (2001/81/EC) both set annual emissions limits for European countries on air pollutants, including those pollutants responsible for acidification, eutrophication, and ground-level ozone pollution. So, member states are responsible for implementing the measures that are required to ensure that their emissions do not exceed on annual basis the ceiling set for each pollutant [20].

Targeting sectors: Besides the air quality standards described above, European legislation aims also at regulating the particular sectors that constitute the main air pollution sources. Particularly, the exhaust emissions from automotive vehicles have been regulated through a number of performance and fuel standards, including the Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and vehicle emission standards, known as the Euro standards. The Euro 5 and 6 standards cover emissions from light vehicles including passenger cars, vans, and commercial vehicles. Industry is naturally another sector under strict regulation. Specifically, the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU and the Directive 2001/80/EC on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants apply. Other international agreements on the emissions of air pollutants are also in place; for instance, sulfur dioxide emissions from shipping are regulated through the International Maritime Organization's 1973 Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), with its additional protocols [17,20].

It is therefore apparent that a pollutant is usually regulated by more than one piece of legislation. A nonexhaustive list of the main legislative documents that are applicable in EU regarding air pollutant emissions (either directly or indirectly by regulating emissions of precursor gases) and ambient concentrations of air pollutants is given in Table 2.13 [17].

Table 2.13. Legislation in Europe Regulating Emissions and Ambient Concentrations of Air Pollutants [17].

	Pollutants	PM	O₃	NO₂ NO_x NH₃	SO₂ SO_x	CO	Heavy Metals	BaP PAHs	VOC
	Policies	PM	O₃	NO₂ NO_x NH₃	SO₂ SO_x	CO	Heavy Metals	BaP PAHs	VOC
Directives for ambient air quality	2008/50/EC	PM	O₃	NO₂	SO₂	CO	Pb		Benzene
Directives for ambient air quality	2004/107/EC						As, Cd, Hg, Ni	BaP
Directives for emissions of air pollutants	2001/81/EC	(a)	(b)	NO_x, NH₃	SO₂				NMVOC
	2010/75/EU	PM	(b)	NO_x, NH₃	SO₂	CO	Cd, TI, Hg, Sb, As, Pb, Cr, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, V		VOC
	Euro standards on road vehicle emissions	PM	(b)	NO_x		CO			VOC, NMVOC
	94/63/EC	(a)	(b)						VOC
	2009/126/EC	(a)	(b)						VOC
	1999/13/EC	(a)	(b)						VOC
	91/676/EEC			NH₃
Directives for fuel quality	1999/32/EC	(a)
Directives for fuel quality	2003/17/EC	(a)	(b)				Pb	PAHs	Benzene, VOC
International conventions	MARPOL 73/78	PM	(b)	NO_x	SO_x				VOC
International conventions	LRTAP	PM (a)	(b)	NO₂, NH₃	SO₂	CO	Cd, Hg, Pb	BaP	NMVOC

Note: (a) Directives and conventions limiting emissions of PM precursors, such as SO₂, NO_x, NH₃, and VOC, indirectly aim to reduce particulate matter ambient air concentrations. (b) Directives and conventions limiting emissions of O₃ precursors, such as NO_x, VOC, and CO, indirectly aim to reduce troposphere O₃ concentrations.

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Appendix 1.16: European Union and Its European Commission*

Pertti J. Hakkinen , in Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Second Edition), 2005

How Environmental and Safety Needs and Issues are Addressed within the EU

Many environmental and safety issues in Europe could not be tackled without joint action by all EU countries. For example, the EU's European Environment Agency gathers information on the state of the EU environment, enabling protective measures and laws to be based on solid data, and the European Chemicals Agency is being created to work on and implement the EU-wide effort on the human and environmental safety of the uses and exposures to 'existing' and 'new' chemicals called the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of CHemicals (REACH).

In all, the EU has adopted over 200 environmental protection directives that are applied in all Member States. Most of the directives are designed to prevent air and water pollution and encourage waste disposal. Other major issues include nature conservation and the supervision of dangerous industrial processes. The EU wants transport, industry, agriculture, fisheries, energy, and tourism to be organized in such a way that they can be developed without destroying natural resources and leading to sustainable development. For example, the EU has cleaner air because of the EU decisions in the 1990s to put catalytic converters into all cars and to get rid of the lead added to gasoline.

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Urban metabolism and land use optimization: In quest for modus operandi for urban resilience

Małgorzata Hanzl , ... Rahul Dewan , in Understanding Disaster Risk, 2021

1.5.1 Introduction

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) are recognized as complementary approaches to deal with climate risk ( European Environment Agency, 2017; Forino et al., 2015). Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 explicitly calls for increased coherence between the two frameworks (UNISDR, 2015 ^a ; Aitsi-Selmi et al., 2015). There are ever more international policies, which address efficient and sustainable resource management. The United Nations General Assembly announced its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 (UN, 2016), and adopted the Paris Agreement (COP21) in December 2015 (UNFCCC, 2016), following on from the IPPC Report (IPCC, 2014). In this document, the UN aimed at improved resilience and climate adaptation (UNEP, 2017). Responding to SDG-11, in October 2016 a New Urban Agenda was proclaimed during Habitat III, which is one of drivers of the change that the document defines in order to "Adopt sustainable, people-centred, age- and gender-responsive and integrated approaches to urban and territorial development" is: "Reinvigorating long-term and integrated urban and territorial planning and design in order to optimise the spatial dimension of the urban form and deliver the positive outcomes of urbanisation" (UN, 2016a, pp. 3–4).

These goals lead to many specific questions, such as that on the desired densities, the ideal proportions of open spaces including green ones, the role and extent of transportation networks, the solutions which answer the requirements of climate resilient development, etc. The debate on resilient planning tends to promote a compact and mixed-use city paradigm as a sort of universal solution (Newman et al., 2017). It reduces journeys, enables the switch to more collective forms of transportation, and this way decreases GHG and energy-source emissions. On the other hand, the necessity to offer ecosystem services and implement nature-based solutions might limit the possibility to densify the urban fabric any further. Therefore, there is a need for a normative framework, which would address the directions of land-use transformations and support good practices in urban design and planning.

The one, which is particularly valid, is the issue of scale. Upgrading the scale of climate-friendly solutions to that of a neighborhood, town, or region may bring added values. The urban metabolism (UM) models, which address flows of resources to and from a settlement, should take into account analyses at various scales. Another perspective is the circular economy (CE) and the potential for the reuse of resources. Although UM models usually address flows of energy or water, land is rarely discussed as a resource, which should be considered in climate change policies. Nevertheless, the theory of a sustainable UM applies to land consumption too. Land consumption should be reduced, multisourced, and the land—recycled and recovered—similar to other resources; this "trias ecologica" provides the founding principle for the CE. Despite the slow pace of its transformations, land consumption may be visualized in the form of a Sankey diagram as a particularly viable "urban resource flood."

The conditions of changing climate further strengthen vulnerabilities in urban regions (UN-Habitat, 2011, 2017; Revi et al., 2014; UNFCCC, 2016; UNISDR, 2015; Aitsi-Selmi et al., 2015) and cause planning for increased climate resilience and adaptability to become even more urgent (de Coninck et al., 2018; UNISDR, 2015). The praxis of urban planning and design shows many creative solutions for reducing land consumption and offering resilient environments. Our objective within the current chapter is to review the practices of dealing with the densification of residential and mixed-use development. From the point of view of UM, we are seeking the optimization of future land consumption. We illustrate our approach with examples coming from urban design practice, this way building a framework for the assessment of urban interventions. The main criteria include density of development, former land use, location, accessibility, etc.

After briefly summarizing the research into resilience thinking, UM and the CE, the current chapter investigates aspects related to land-use transformations. Later, we discuss the examples of land consumption analyses and introduce a methodology of assessment, which uses flow analysis—a Sankey diagram. The method is applied to three case studies coming from the practice of the Dutch firm, We Love the City. The research results are then discussed and observations for the improvements of the assessment methods considered and summarized.

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European Union and Its European Commission

S. Nikfar , ... J. van der Kolk , in Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Third Edition), 2014

Addressing Environmental and Safety Needs and Issues Within the EU

Many environmental and safety issues in Europe could not be tackled without joint action by all EU countries. For example, the EU's European Environment Agency gathers information on the state of the EU environment, enabling protective measures and laws to be based on solid data, and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has been created to work on and implement the EU regulation that covers rules for the human and environmental safety of the uses of and exposures to chemicals, called the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization of Chemicals (REACH).

In all, the EU has adopted over 200 environmental protection directives that are applicable in all member states. Most of the directives are designed to prevent air and water pollution and to ascertain sound waste disposal. Other major issues include nature conservation and the supervision of dangerous industrial processes. The EU wants transport, industry, agriculture, fisheries, energy, and tourism to be organized in such a way that they can be developed without destroying natural resources and leading to sustainable development. For example, the EU air quality has improved of the EU decisions in the 1990s to put catalytic converters into all cars and to get rid of the lead added to gasoline.

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Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/european-environment-agency

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