Environmental Data Yearbook 2008 - Key Topics

The Environmental Data Yearbook, the most extensive and complete collection of official environmental statistics published in Italy, is a product of the experience accumulated in the field of environmental reporting by the former APAT. The Environmental Protection Agencies of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces and Numerous technical-scientific bodies, the so-called Main Reference Institutions have been involved in the activities of collecting and disseminating environmental information, providing the Institute with support ISPRA throughout the arrangement of the document. In the volume Key Topics, the information base of the Yearbook is used to evaluate a number of situations typical of the environmental topics that currently constitute the priority concerns of environmental policy. The areas taken under consideration were chosen in accordance with the topics addressed by the EU’s 6th Environmental Action Plan, though, as compared to the Plan, it was decided to place greater emphasis on the aspects of Soil and Territory and Coastal Environment, given the importance of these topics as part of the International Year of the Planet Earth being organised for 2008 by the United Nations.