Sponsored Sites Shop Online for Eco-Friendly Products Ekotribe Carbon Consulting Add your site here.

Based on UNEP's concept of the "Atlas of our changing environment", the images compiled here tell the stories: there are few more powerful ways of communicating about change happening on the earth's surface and related problems to human well-being and economy, than the view from space showing vast changes taking place in various landscapes, accompanied by photos at ground level to illustrate what are the (frequently negative) impacts on ecosystems, human beings and their livelihoods; indeed, impacts that are literally changing peoples' ways of living.

"Before and after satellite images provide scientifically provocative evidence of environmental change sweeping across the planet. Similar atlases have been produced by UNEP and partners for the globe, for Africa and for individual countries there. These products are already catalyzing debate and action. UNEP believes that the new atlas can do the same for Europe, providing a trigger for reflection, policy change and action among governments by framing the kind of discussion that a tower of documents can never hope to achieve", commented Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director.

The stories in the Atlas describe one site in detail for each of the 15 chosen countries. Where possible, the effects of the community initiatives are shown by satellite images over a longer period of time, supported by images showing environmentally-relevant land cover change in that country. A web application will be released which will allow users to interact with the information and give them the opportunity to access more underlying data. The European Space Agency, as well as SPOT-Image and the "Planet Action" Initiative, provided multi-temporal images for many of the scenes portrayed on the DVD.