In Europe, urban areas accommodate more than three-quarters of the population. These areas have grown rapidly in recent decades. City centres and the wider surroundings have been transformed.
Decision makers involved in urban planning, from the local level up to the EU level need accurate data enabling them to monitor and interpret these changes.
Developed as part of GMES, the Urban Atlas fulfils this need by providing pan-European, reliable and inter-comparable urban planning data with high-resolution maps.
The Urban Atlas brings together thousands of images from European satellites and provides detailed mapping of larger urban zones, yielding accurate land cover and usage data.
To date, Urban Atlas covers 117 European cities. More than 300 cities will be covered by early 2011.
The data sets and maps can be downloaded from the EEA Urban Atlas website.
Urban Atlas Exhibition (Brussels, 15-30 April 2010): VIP corner with Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the EC in charge of Industry and Entrepreneurship, Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Frank De Winne, Astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), Roman Romanenko, Russian Cosmonaut and Robert Thirsk, Canadian Astronaut from the ISS (International Space Station)