From Green to Gray: 1,500 km² of Artificial Land Each Year in Europe, According to a Survey
Paris – Between 2018 and 2023, “we lost about 9,000 km2” of land to construction, “an area equivalent to the size of Cyprus,” the authors – 41 journalists and scientists from eleven countries – of an investigation coordinated by the Arena for journalism in Europe network and titled “Green to Grey,” stated in a press release.
Every week, nearly 30 km2 of land is urbanized, and every day the equivalent of 600 football fields, they warn.
These results show that the EEA data “probably underestimate the extent of urbanization in Europe,” at least 1.5 times greater according to the findings of the investigation, which relies on an analysis of satellite images, with a finer resolution than that of the EEA, combined with a machine learning model.
Urbanization, to build housing, factories, or roads but also sometimes for tourist activities, primarily occurs on natural spaces, such as forests, meadows, or wetlands, of which 900 km2 are destroyed each year. (1st October 2025)
