Scientific and technical research
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Scenario analysis of pollutants loads to European regional seas for the year 2020
Part I Policy options and alternative measures to mitigate land based emission of nutrients
A spatially explicit statistical approach (GREEN model) applied to continental Europe on a sub catchment basis, is used to link input from anthropogenic activities and nutrient loads into European Seas (namely nitrogen and phosphorous). Effectiveness of environmental legislation is assessed at the horizon 2020, emphasizing the regional differences between European countries as well as the respective contribution of anthropogenic changes and hydrological fluctuation in nutrient exports. The set of scenarios analyzed includes a business as usual situation, a full implementation of on going policy options, a change in European diet based on a strong reduction of meat intake, and optimized management of agricultural practices. All prospective analyses are implemented for EU-27 and are discussed in terms of capacities to mitigate land based emissions of nutrient, and also according to their impacts on the loads of nutrient exported to European coastal areas More
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Preparing CORINE land cover data for use
Optimalization of land cover data using a database and a topological GIS platform
CORINE Landcover Data are distributed in 44 Shapefiles. In this report the author displays two methodologies to combine the 44 shape files in order to make a usable product. ArcINFO librarian and Oracle Spatial are being exploited More
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Risk assessment methodologies of soil threats in Europe
Status and options for harmonization for risks by erosion, compaction, salinization, organic matter decline and landslides
The EU thematic strategy for soil protection recognizes that soil degradation through erosion, soil organic matter decline, compaction, salinization and landslides occurs in specific areas, and that these areas must be identified in an unequivocal way. Currently, there are various risk assessment methodologies (RAMs) and the question has risen to what extent these RAMs yield similar outcome and, if not, whether the outcome can be harmonized, i.e. whether the results of the various RAMs can be made compatible or comparable. In this study i) the current status of RAMs for erosion, soil organic matter decline, compaction, and salinization in the European Union (EU27) is reviewed, and ii) the need and the options for harmonization are assessed. The need for harmonization was defined as the likelihood of achieving different outcomes when using different RAMs, whereas the options for harmonization refer to the efforts that are required to harmonize soil RAMs. The current status of RAMSs in EU-27 was assessed on the basis of questionnaires, which were sent out to soil specialists and policy officers in all Member States. We received more than 100 (response rate >50%) completed questionnaires. It turned out that many of the so called RAMs are still incomplete; they are ‘process (or threat) quantifications’ rather than methodologies that assess the risk of a soil threat. Moreover, there were significant differences between RAMs for a soil threat in terms of (i) the notion of the threat, (ii) data collection, (iii) data processing, (iv) data interpretation, and (v) risk perception. The need for harmonization appeared highest for erosion and salinization, whereas the options for harmonization were best for SOM decline. Harmonization of soil RAMs may be very complex and for that reason not always feasible. We suggest two options that may facilitate unequivocal identification of risk (or priority) areas for soil threats, i) a two Tiered approach based on data availability and spatial scale and ii) generic harmonization, i.e. combining standardization and harmonization in a rather pragmatic way More
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Application and selection of nuclear event investigation methods, tools and techniques
This final report presents the results obtained in the last phase of a project launched as part of the technical task ‘Comparative study of event assessment methodologies with recommendations for an optimised approach in the EU’ in 2010-2011. It examines and evaluates existing practices and arrives at some conclusions and recommendations that will help in selecting and applying adequate analysis instruments to improve the quality of nuclear event investigations. The study is based on the results of a survey involving experts from nuclear power plants and regulatory bodies in 12 European countries and the US. The main focus was on analysing existing practices and organisational aspects of nuclear event investigation, as well as making a qualitative assessment of the event investigation methods, tools and techniques currently employed. Some methodological inconsistencies, barriers, bottlenecks and emerging traps in the event investigation process were identified and analysed more thoroughly. In order to avoid existing ambiguities and misunderstandings surrounding the terms and definitions used in event investigation in general, and root cause analysis in particular, several improved definitions were suggested. With the aim of better distinguishing between investigation instruments of different levels and applicability, an original system of classification of basic root cause analysis methods and tools was proposed. This system should help in comparing characteristics and selecting the most appropriate instruments for investigating a particular event. Some methodological and practical recommendations were put forward as to how the analysis should be conducted and how the obstacles identified can be overcome. Detailed recommendations for selecting root cause analysis methods and tools are also presented More
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The 2011 Civic Competence Composite Indicator (CCCI-2)
Measuring young people’s civic competence across Europe based on the IEA international citizenship and civic education study
Education is a key policy area for achieving democracy-related goals. In this respect the European Commission have developed indicators to monitor the levels of active citizenship across Europe (Hoskins et al 2006 and Hoskins and Mascherini 2009) and levels of civic competence across Europe (Hoskins et al 2008). The 2020 Education and Training policy agenda (ET 2020) continues to identify Active Citizenship as one of the four major policy goals and continues to support national governments in developing key competences, including civic competences, of its citizens. Active Citizenship was a priority of the 2011 Hungarian Presidency, and Education Ministers were invited to debate this issue at a March 2011 meeting. An outcome of this meeting was the ministers’ support of the Centre for Research on Education and Lifelong Learning’s (CRELL) development of a new composite indicator on civic competence. The Commission, represented by Commissioner Vassiliou, called for a ‘coherent and comprehensive strategy which covers all aspects of citizenship education in a lifelong learning perspective’.Based on these needs, CRELL has created a new composite indicator on civic competence, the Civic Competence Composite Indicator 2 (CCCI-2). It comprises four dimensions: ‘Participatory Attitudes’, ‘Citizenship Values’, ‘Social Justice Values’, and ‘Knowledge and Skills for Democracy’. The data was obtained from young people between 13 and 14 years old as part of the IEA International Citizenship and Civic Education Study 2009 conducted in 38 countries.The findings of this new indicator show that wealth and democratic stability in a country do not guarantee democratically engaged youth. In addition, young people’s positive attitudes towards participation and their citizenship values are often enhanced in relatively poorer countries with recent breaks in democracy. We might perceive that this will be beneficial for the future of democracies in these countries, however, the limited evidence available does not point towards the fact that these youthful aspirations actually make it into engaged adult citizens.Western democracies appear to be fostering a non-participatory culture in their youth. However, social justice attitudes and knowledge and skills for democracy, appear to be more prevalent in these wealthier and democratically more stable countries. These trends are consistent with the results of the original CRELL indicator research, using data from 10 years ago, which suggests a consistency of civic cultures amongst the younger generations.The findings also suggest that measuring the wealth of a nation only through its GDP does not capture the health of the future of democracy. The more wealthy countries need to do more to enhance and maintain the citizenship norms and participatory attitudes of their young people. In contrast, it is social justice that remains the issue for the newer democracies in Europe More
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LPIS quality assurance framework annex I - Executable Test Suite (ETS)
ANNEX I : LPIS data quality measures contains the definition and comprehensive description of the quality measures of the LPIS data, which provide the necessary and sufficient information to properly evaluate theperformance of a given LPIS. They are defined on the base of the principles and templates of ISO/TS 19138. There are two group of quality measures, stated in the document :· quality measures at reference parcel level (with prefix RP_ in the Alias Name) - they are subject of the ETS parcel inspection· quality measures at sample level (with prefix LPIS_ in the Alias Name) - they are derived from statistics from the "RP_" measures, through pre-defined SQL statements on the set of observations made during the ETS inspection. Some sample measures involve statistics from other sources More
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Measuring societal awareness of the rural agrarian landscape
Indicators and scale issues
The work presented in this report is part of the effort to define the landscape state and diversity indicator in the frame of COM (2006) 508 “Development of agri-environmental indicators for monitoring the integration of environmental concerns into the common agricultural policy”. The Communication classifies the indicators according to their level of development, which, for the landscape indicator is “in need of substantial improvements in order to become fully operational”. For this reason a full re-definition of the indicator has been carried out, following the initial proposal presented in the frame of the IRENA operation (“Indicator Reporting on the Integration of Environmental Concerns into Agricultural Policy”). The new proposal for the landscape state and diversity indicator is structured in three components : the first concerns the degree of naturalness, the second landscape structure, the third the societal appreciation of the rural landscape. While the first twocomponents rely on a strong bulk of existing literature, the development of the methodology has made evident the need for further analysis of the third component, which is based on a newly proposed top-down approach. This report presents an in-depth analysis of such component of the indicator, and the effort to include a social dimension in large scale landscape assessment More
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Global soil organic carbon stocks from amended Harmonized World Soil Database
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Support to the review of the thematic strategy on air pollution
JRC’s contribution to the 2nd stakeholder meeting, January 2012
Although efforts of the EU to reduce air pollution have led to important reductions of emissions within the Member States, millions of people are still exposed to air pollutants at concentration levels that may endanger their health and air pollution is still causing relevant damage to crops and ecosystems. On this background, the European Commission has decided to review its Thematic Strategy for Air Pollution (TSAP) by 2013 at latest, and do this through a consultation process, led by DG ENV, with a broad group of stakeholders. The present report contains the presentations made by JRC staff at the second Stakeholder Meeting, held in January 2012. The presentation by R. Van Dingenen discusses the possibilities of designing air pollution policies that also helps to mitigate climate change. Such policies are possible because many air pollutants, llike CO2, are emitted by the burning of fossil fuels and some air pollutants have an important warming effect on climate. F. Dentener presents an analysis of the impact of hemispheric transport of air pollutants, particularly for the case of tropospheric ozone. It is found that emissions outside of the European region have increasing influence on ozone trends in Europe. The talk by P.Thunis links the European scale modelling with urban and street scale. The advantages of having high spatial resolution of models and emission inventories are discussed and the importance of good quality monitoring data is stressed. A. Borowiak tells about the AQUILA network and its planned contributions to the review. The AQUILA Network was founded in 2001 and is composed of the National Air Quality Reference Laboratories of the EU Member States. The Forum for Air Quality Modelling (FAIRMODE) is a joint action of the JRC and the Euorpean Environmental Agency. S. Galmarini illustrates the work of this body that aims at bringing together air quality modellers and users and promote the use of harmonized models within the EU More
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Emission scenario document for product type 2
Private and public health area disinfectants and other biocidal products
Following the entry into force of the Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market, all active substances in the European market have to be reviewed to ensure that under normal conditions of use they can be used without unacceptable risk for people, animals or the environment. Thus, in the frame of the review process, the risk assessment of each active substance plays a fundamental role and providing technical guidance to the assessments that must be performed ensures a correct and uniform implementation of the Directive for the different Member States. According to Annex VI of Directive 98/8/EC the risk assessment shall cover the proposed normal use of the biocidal product together with a ‘realistic worst case scenario’. The aim of this Emission Scenario Document (ESD) is to set up methods for the estimation of the emission of disinfectants, used for the disinfection of vehicles used for animal transport, for veterinary hygiene and in hatcheries. The present ESD is intended to be used by Member States as a basis for assessing applications submitted with a view to include existing active substances used in PT3 in Annex I or IA of Directive 98/8/EC or for assessing applications for product authorisation. It can be a useful tool also for Industry, when assessing requirements for a submission. This ESD have been developed in the context of project FKZ 360 04 023 of the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), who contracted SCC GmbH for a first draft of the document. The first draft was then revised by the Biocides competence group of Chemical assessment and toxicology (CAT) Unit of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP) of the JRC, taking into account the comments of the Member States. The final version, approved by the Biocides Technical Meeting, was endorsed by the Biocides Competent Authority Meeting in May 2011.The Biocides Technical Meeting and the Biocides Competent Authorities Meeting agreed in asking the JRC to publish the present Emission Scenario Document as a Scientific and Technical Report More
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