In 2003/2004, Prof 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, from 2008 to 2010, he coordinated 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 report, "Europe's ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains" provides 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. It can be found here.