Meteorological variables affect composition, structure, growth, health, and dynamics of forest ecosystems. The measurement of meteorological data at forest monitoring plots is essential for the interpretation of climate change effects. Within an ecological monitoring network, standard meteorological variables such as precipitation, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind velocity, and direction should be measured. These variables are essential for the calculation of total deposition of air pollutants, for the interpretation of biological processes or for the derivation of water budgets and percolation from the rooting zone. Additional variables of interest are soil temperature, stand precipitation, and soil moisture. The magnitude and changes in time of the meteorological variables can be assessed as explanatory factors for other observations made in forest ecological monitoring. A detailed description of different methods is given. As an example for an integrated analysis, the application of meteorological data in water budget modeling is described and results of a pilot study are shown.

A large and growing number of EU and national policies draw on, or affect directly and indirectly, Europe’s forests, including their ecosystems. Hence, there is a need for improved efforts to provide up-to-date assessments of the condition of European forests. The Forest Information System for Europe (FISE) is launched to respond to this need. This report shows the content developed for the FISE platform in the form of mock-ups.

The present report describes EEA's approach for producing land accounts using geospatial data and providing statistical information in land cover and land use status and changes.