ENVEUROPE

EnvEurope was conceived synergistically dealing with several key targets and in response to challenges of research within the Long-Term Ecosystem Research in Europe site network (LTER-Europe). The project has been structured to play a role in the conceptual and operative context of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) promoted by the European Commission and in the development of some components of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), a joint initiative of the European Commission and European Space Agency.

Within this context the project intends to lay the foundations for a more integrated system for successful long-term ecosystem research and monitoring at the European level, focused on understanding status, trends and changes of environmental quality and on the elaboration of relevant detection systems and methods.

Joining the efforts of 11 countries belonging to the LTER Europe network the main target of the project is the definition of appropriate environmental quality indicators with an integrated long-term, broad scale, cross-domain (terrestrial, continental, wetlands and marine ecosystems) approach. Through a cause-effect process EnvEurope will contribute mainly to the definition of the potential and effective use of long-term datasets in identifying and addressing important scientific questions, while, in the future, it will allow integration of the specific information and knowledge into EU environmental policies, strategies and development programs.