Publications

The aim of the Water Framework Directive is to promote good water quality in all European water bodies by managing water bodies, i.e. lakes, rivers, groundwater bodies, transitional waters and coastal waters. Water body management poses a major challenge indensely populated countries such as Germany.

Our way of constructing our buildings, our life-style, our housing patterns, as well as our mobility habits, increasingly place stress on the environment and endanger the basis of existence of many living creatures on this planet. Mankind can carry on ignoring the limits of tolerance of their natural environment.

Around €47 billion of the costs incurred by car traffic are not covered by the taxes and duties currently levied. Therefore road user charging systems are appropriate.

The social welfare debate has recently been rekindled both at the national and at the international level. There are signs that the costs of environmental change and of the maintenance of social cohesion are not adequately explicated by economic quantities like gross domestic product (GDP).

The geothermal heat exchanger consists of three fields in the western and one larger field in the southern part of the site. They form a subterranean system of pipes with a total length of almost 5 km, through which air flows. Outside air enters the system via three intake structures on the western side of the building.

With its characteristic shape and the colour scheme of its facade, the UBA’s new main building blends in well with its surroundings. A four-storey ‘snake’ of offices and functional rooms wraps around a public forum and the atrium, which is reserved for Agency staff.

Flyer for the offices of the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau. Visitors who wish to be fully informed about the architectural and environmental design of the new building and head to the atrium can join one of the guided tours.

For the German public, environmental protection is the most important problem in Germany after the labour market. People attach great importance to the quality of environmental assets - such as climate, water, soil or air.

Climate change is already having numerous direct and indirect effects on human health, which means that adaptation measures are required in the fields of health care and preventive medicine, urban planning and building design and in individual behaviour.

On the CD-ROM you will find the complete contents of the internet application ‘Data on the Environment’ (in German, 2009). The brochure is designed to tell you about selected significant trends within five important areas of environmental protection.

Fluxes of reactive nitrogen compounds1 caused or massively changed by human activity constitute a cross-cutting problem in environmental protection. The intensification of the nitrogen cycle makes it possible to supply a growing world population with protein-rich food, but has considerable adverse effects on the environment and human health.

This material was originally published in German and was designed for lessons for 6-12 year old pupils in Germany. It may therefore be necessary in some cases to adapt the worksheets to the situation in the countries where the material is to be used.

Please note: The chapter "Warning - Chemicals!" isn´t up to date any more!