The steering committee of the heads of the environmental departments of the eleven cities and four districts of the Ruhr Region and the Regional Association Ruhr (RVR) are going to publish a "Report on the state of the environment in the Ruhr Metropolitan Region 2017" ("Bericht zur Lage der Umwelt in der Metropole Ruhr 2017") (working title). The reason for the publication in early 2017 is Essen's title as "European Green Capital", which was conferred to the city Essen by the European Commission in 2015 for the year 2017. The review focuses on key topics of local and regional environmental policy in the Ruhr Metropolitan Region.

On behalf of the Regional Association Ruhr (RVR), the Wuppertal Institute in cooperation with the planning office Richter-Richard develops one chapter of the environmental report, in which the current situation and the development of the environment in the Ruhr Region is analysed based on 15 environmental indicators (e.g. climate, energy, transport, air quality, noise, land usage, organic farming, biodiversity, water quality, environmental economy).

The noise indicators are analysed by the planning office Richter-Richard. The environmental indicators selected are aligned to existing indicators at European, national and federal state (North Rhine-Westphalia) level. The indicators are analysed and presented by texts, diagrams, maps and pictograms.