Climate change impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016

Introduction
1.1.3 Changes compared with the 2012 report
This section briefly describes changes in the structure
of this report and the underlying indicator base,
compared with the previous report published in 2012.
Substantial new developments are highlighted in the
'Executive summary'.
In September 2014, the EEA conducted a stakeholder
survey in order to get feedback on the scope, quality,
comprehensibility and usefulness of the 2012 report,
as well as on the scope, thematic focus and production
process for the 2016 report. The results of this survey
informed the scoping process of the current report.
The overall structure of the 2016 report has changed
moderately from that of the 2012 report. First,
information about the development of relevant policies
at global, European, transnational and national levels
is included in a new chapter on the policy context
(Chapter 2). Second, the chapter on multi-sectoral
vulnerability to climate change (Chapter 6 in the
current report, Chapter 5 in the previous report) was
completely restructured. This chapter synthesises
the results of multi-sectoral climate change impact,
vulnerability and risk assessments with relevance
for Europe at different spatial scales. Furthermore,
the formerly separate section on fisheries has been
integrated into the section on oceans and the marine
environment (Section 4.1), and the formerly separate
sections on soils and on forests have been integrated
into the section on terrestrial ecosystems (Section 4.4).
Finally, a new section on ecosystems and their services
under climate change has been included (Section 4.5).
The indicator base of the 2012 report was slightly
modified for this report, taking into consideration,
among others, feedback from the above-mentioned
stakeholder survey and from the Advisory Group. As a
result, in the 2016 report, several indicators have been
dropped or discontinued, some indicators have been
merged, and a few indicators have been extended
or newly created. Table 1.2 shows the main changes
in indicators between the 2012 and 2016 reports.
Table 1.2 Changes in indicators 2012–2016
Section Indicator(s) in 2012 report New, merged or modified
indicator(s) in 2016 report
3.2 Atmosphere Extreme temperature
Heat extremes
Extreme precipitation
–
3.3 Cryosphere Greenland ice sheet
Permafrost (*)
4.1 Oceans and marine environment –
Heavy precipitation
Hail
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
–
Oxygen content
Marine phenology (*)
–
4.2 Coastal zones Storm surges Integrated into:
Global and European sea level
4.3 Freshwater systems River droughts
Meteorological and river droughts
Lake and river ice cover (*)
4.4 Terrestrial ecosystems, soil and forests Soil organic carbon (*)
Soil erosion (*)
Species interactions
Plant phenology; animal phenology
Plant distribution; animal distribution
Forest growth
5.2 Human health Air pollution by ozone and health
–
–
–
–
Plant and animal phenology
Plant and animal distribution
Forest composition and distribution
–
–
Water and food-borne diseases
5.3 Agriculture Irrigation water requirement Crop water demand
5.4 Energy Heating degree days Heating and cooling degree days
Note:
The indicators in green are new in this report, indicators in blue have been merged or substantially modified since the previous report,
and indicators in red are no longer presented in this report. An asterisk (*) denotes that limited information from an indicator removed
from this report is presented in this report in a box.
34 Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016 | An indicator-based report