ATEAM's main objective is to assess the vulnerability of human sectors relying on ecosystem services with respect to global change. Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes through which ecosystems, and the organisms that make them up, sustain and fulfil human life. Vulnerability is the degree to which an ecosystem service is sensitive to global change plus the degree to which the sector that relies on this service is unable to cope with the changes.

ATEAM's integrative assessment approach includes several tasks:

• developing a comprehensive modelling framework for predicting the dynamics of services provided by major European terrestrial ecosystems at a regional scale.
• developing macro-scale indicators of society's adaptive capacity to changes in ecosystem service provision.
• developing a range of scenarios for socio-economic development, land-use change, pollution levels, atmospheric composition and climate change up to the year 2100.
• maintaining a continuous dialogue with stakeholders to ensure the applicability of results for the management of natural resources.
• developing a series of maps depicting regions and sectors that are especially vulnerable to global change.