In 2003/2004, Dr Martin Price - Director of the Centre for Mountain Studies - was the scientific coordinator of the first major integrated study on Europe's mountains, commissioned by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy.
Since then, there has been a considerable increase in the availability of European-level data which can be analysed to present the current situation in the continent's mountain areas.
In this context, in 2008/2009, he is coordinating an integrated assessment of Europe's mountains for the European Environment Agency in cooperation with the European Topic Centre for Land Use and Spatial Information (ETC-LUSI).
The aim of this work will be to provide a comprehensive integrated assessment of the current status of, and trends relating to, the environment and sustainable development of the mountains of Europe, in order to inform the implementation and development of relevant policies.
The report builds on the EEA Land and Ecosystem Accounts (LEAC) framework of the assessment of land use changes and associated environmental concerns.