Land Cover in EuropeLand Cover in Europelessons learned from CORINE land lessons learned from CORINE land

covercover and new perspectives and new perspectives

European Environment Agency (EEA)European Environment Agency (EEA)

Markus Erhard

Why Land Cover Monitoring• Multi-functionality of land – link to other sectors

urban and landscape planning, water, soil, biodiversity, climate change, air quality, natural hazards etc.

• Monitoring, assessment and reporting (continuous observation of environmental changes over space and time) reporting obligations, indicators etc.

• Decision support, policy effectiveness need for action

Corine Land Cover (EEA-39)http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/COR0-landcover

• Voluntary contribution of Member States since 1990 (no legal framework)

• Standardized, harmonized and quality checked for Europe

• Minimum Mapping Unit 25 ha

• Change Detection 5 ha• EEA / EIONET (Member

States) product (joint ownership)

• Free and open access• Widely used (public &

private)• Stand alone product

Hand Hand made made mapsmaps

First GISFirst GIS GIS electronic GIS electronic mappingmapping

Web-basedWeb-basedInformation Information

systemssystems

CLC 1990

CLC CLC2000 2006

CLC2012 +

… and mappingEnvironmental change vs. technical progress

CLC 2006CLC 2006

Built-up area / sealingBuilt-up area / sealing

CLC ChangesCLC Changes

Land cover products

Corine land cover map (CLC is derived from satellite images)

Green Landscape Index (derived from CLC)

Nature Value (Naturilis, derived from Natura2000 designated areas)

Fragmentation (Effective Mesh Size (MEFF) derived from TeleAtlas Roads and CLC)

Landscape Ecological Potential (LEP) 2000, by 1km² grid cell

LEP 2000 by NUTS 2/3

Land Ecosystem Account: Landscape Ecological Potential

and

From changes to flows

LCF3

LCF1

LCF2

LCF5

LCF4

LCF7

LCF6

LCF8

Change Matrix(44x43=1932

possible changes)summarized into

flows

LCF9

Corine land cover types 1 2A 2B 3A 3B 3C 4 5

Land cover flows

Art

ific

ial a

reas

Fo

rest

ed la

nd

Wet

lan

ds

Wat

er b

od

ies

LCF1 Urban land management 737 15 19 0 8 0 0 780LCF2 Urban residential sprawl 1924 1867 200 145 8 3 2 4149LCF3 Sprawl of economic sites and infrastructures 77 2728 1595 665 451 35 22 53 5627LCF4 Agriculture internal conversions 17252 10062 27314LCF5 Conversion from other land cover to agriculture 273 935 1796 1734 155 96 50 5039LCF6 Withdrawal of farming 2393 2860 5253LCF7 Forests creation and management 254 35803 5166 1048 1063 3 43337LCF8 Water bodies creation and management 191 252 253 117 190 17 21 1042LCF9 Changes due to natural & multiple causes 311 44 15 1317 1323 1041 229 252 4534

No Change 160016 1149717 802502 990736 255914 50289 45502 45473 3500149

LCF1 Urban land management 780 780LCF2 Urban residential sprawl 4149 4149LCF3 Sprawl of economic sites and infrastructures 5627 5627LCF4 Agriculture internal conversions 15695 11619 27314LCF5 Conversion from other land cover to agriculture 2450 2590 5039LCF6 Withdrawal of farming 1124 2792 1244 23 70 0 5253LCF7 Forests creation and management 42547 766 24 43337LCF8 Water bodies creation and management 21 1021 1042

No Change 160016 1149717 802502 990736 255914 50289 45502 45473 3500149

20

00

2006

Country Analyses (1) (e.g. Bulgaria) http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/landuse

• Change of main land-cover classes 2000 - 2006

1.2. Net Change in Land

Cover 2000-2006 [km2]

- 20

10

40

1.3. Net Change in Land Cover

[% of initial year 2000]

- 1 ,5

- 0 ,5

0 ,5

1 ,5

1.1. Land Cover 2006

[% of total]

Wetl.

0 ,1%1%

4%

1%

38% 37%

14%

5%

3.8. Artificial land

take [ha/ year,

% of initial year]

0.0

6%

0.1

3%

0

400

800

1990-2000 2000-2006

Country Analyses (2) (e.g. Bulgaria) http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/landuse

Regional and thematic analysis(e.g. wetlands)

Going global GlobCorine 2009• Environmental accounting UNSD SEEA revision 2012/2013, green GDP etc.• from GlobCover to GlobCorine: ESA & EEA, GEO-GEOSS

Source: ESA, 2008

CLC for integrated assessmentsSpatial Integration of Environmental & Socio-Spatial Integration of Environmental & Socio-Economic DataEconomic Data

Mapping

Sampling

Individual Sites Monitoring

Socio-EconomicStatistics

Socio-economic statistics

Statistical Data and Corinee.g. down-scaling population density

http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/population-density-1

Dissemination and user supportLand use data centre

• http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/landuse

Towards operational land cover monitoring (GIO Land 2011-2013)

Services

SpaceSystems

In Situ Systems

Data Integration & Information Management

GMES

Services

SpaceSystems

In Situ Systems

Data Integration & Information Management

GMES

Photo: ESA

GIO Land Services 3 components:

1. Local : zooming on ‘hot spot’ (e.g. urban atlas, protected areas, coastal areas)

2. Continental: pan-European products (Corine 2012, 5 HRLs soil sealing, forest, agriculture, wetland, water)

3. Global: bio-physical parameters (Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), food security (Africa) etc.)

Local component – Urban Atlas

EU component - CLC

Global component – ECV*s

Continental Component (1)CORINE CORINE CORINE ...

… …

1990 2000 2006 2012 20xx

• Corine 2006 update and 2012 map based on Image 2012 (-1) and CLC2006

• Re-analysis 2012-2006-2000

Continental Component (2)+ 5 High Resolution Layers (HRLs)

20 x 20 m resolution for validated 100 x 100m (1 ha) grid cells

1. artificial surfaces: imperviousness layer (0-100%) (former soil sealing)

2. forest areas: foliage type (coniferous, deciduous, mixed) and crown coverage (0-100%)

3. agricultural areas: mapping of permanent grassland

4. wetlands: mapping of wetness5. water surfaces: small water bodies

complementary to WFD and reference data

Local analysis (e.g. soil sealing / imperviousness 2006)

20m * 20m

Soil Imperviousness 2006 - 2009Berlin 2006Berlin 2009

Courtesy: Geoland-2

Next steps Improve product (HRLs as first step) Improve production process (share between

industry and Member States) and cost benefit Improve production time (from ~ 3 to 1 year) for

more frequent updating Adapt to user requirements Make use of national data and monitoring Make use of public participation (citizen science /

Eye on Earth) Embed in INSPIRE, SEIS and national activities

Appropriate handling CLC as pan-European harmonized product (EEA39) Information homogenous and comparable across

Europe Due to its granularity CLC tends to underestimate

trends (scaling issue) Changes << 5ha are in some cases not visible

(e.g. land take by holiday houses in Norway) Need for re-analysis (better data vs. change

detection)

Appropriate use of information not “right or wrong”

Conclusions QA/QC and standardised production implemented Methods for analyses and assessments exist Operational updating (GMES) with higher frequency Dissemination and user involvement (web services

and GMES) Free and open access to data, tools and products Production enhancement (faster, cheaper, better

integrating national activities) Product enhancement (content, timeliness)

keep it running

Thank you very much for your Thank you very much for your attentionattention!!

http://www.eea.europa.eumarkus.erhard@eea.europa.eu