The LUCAS project Land Use / Cover Area Frame Survey

Marco FRITZEuropean CommissionEurostat, E1 - Agricultural Statistics. Methodology: LUCAS Office address: BECH C2/6145, rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 LuxembourgTel.: +352 4301 35113 Fax: +352 4301 37317e-mail: marco.fritz@ec.europa.euhttp://forum.europa.eu.int/irc/dsis/landstat/info/data/index.htm

What is LUCAS? Methodology Results Conclusions

What is LUCAS?

• An area frame survey:

Statistical method based on the visual observation of sampled geo-referenced points to compute area estimates

• Objectives

•To obtain harmonised data at EU25 level on:– Land use and Land cover– Environmental features

•To provide a common methodology-nomenclature ensuring full comparability of results•To calculate early estimates of areas (main crops) in June/July•To analyse the interaction agriculture-environment-landscape (multi-purpose survey)

What is LUCAS? - Calendar of activities

• 2001 - survey carried out in 13 MS

• 2002 - survey carried out in UK and IE and in EE-HU-SI

• 2003 - survey carried out in 15 MS + Hungary

• 2005 - survey carried out in LT-LV-PL

• 2006 - survey carried out in 11 MS

• + PHARE Multi-Country 2000 and 2003 Programmes on Sectoral Pilot Projects in Agriculture and Environment Statistics

What is LUCAS? Coverage 2001

88030 points surveyed

What is LUCAS? Coverage 2006

169943 points surveyed

What is LUCAS? Methodology Results Conclusions

Methodology: Sampling Design Base sample:

- Uniform square grid of 1km side length over the entire territory of the EU Member States:

- ETRS89 Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area coordinate reference system (ETRS-LAEA):

» Centre point: 52°North 10° East» Origin: 4.321.000 meters west, 3.210.000 meters south of centre point

- 4.025.583 nodes = base sample points Master sample (even points of the base sample):

- 2km grid: about 1 Mio sample points Photo-interpretation of all master sample points into 7 strata:

1.arable land2.permanent crops3.grassland, 4.wood/shrubland, 5.bare land, low or rare vegetation, 6.artificial land7.water

Methodology: Stratification

results

Methodology: Process

Sampling

Photo-Interpretation

Compute statistics

1.000.000 points

250.000 points

Stratum Points

Arable uuuuu

Water xxxxxx

Artificial yyyyyy

Wooded zzzzz

Survey

Ortho-Photos

Image 2000

Methodology: Data collected

407 surveyors and 39 supervisors have collected the following data:

• Land cover • Land use• Point and crop photos• Landscape photos (5 to 6 photos/point in

2006= ~1.000.000 photos. Estimated size : 1.5 Tb)

On average:13 points surveyed/day400 points/surveyor30 days of work/surveyor

Methodology: NomenclatureA1 Built-up areas

A2 Artificial non built-up areas

B1 Cereals

B2 Root crops

B3 Non permanent industrial crops

B4 Dry pulses, vegetables and flowers

B7 Permanent Crops, Fruit trees & berries

B8 Other Permanent Crops

C1 Forest Area

C2 Other Tree Area

D Shrubland

E Grassland

F Bare Land

G Water Areas

55 classes

U11 Agriculture ( + Kitchen garden + Fallow land)

U12 Forestry

U13 Fishing

U14 Mining, Quarrying

U21 Energy production

U22 Industry & Manufacturing

U31 Transport, communication, …

U32 Water & waste treatment

U33 Construction

U34 Commerce, Finance, Business

U35 Community Services

U36 Recreation, Leisure, Sport

U37 Residential

U40 Unused

U50 Wetland

33 classes

Reaching the points

Methodology: Observations on the ground...

Observing the features in the field

3 m

40 m

3 m

40 m

What is LUCAS? Methodology Results Conclusions

Results: Comparison Stratification/Ground survey CZ

Stratification 2005

LUCAS 2006 Codes TotalArable Land

Artificial Areas

BareLand

Grassland

Perm. Crops Water

Wood, Shrubs

ARTIFICIAL LAND 128 9 64 2 38 0 0 15

CROPLAND 2801 2721 1 1 58 15 0 5

PERMANENT CROPS 100 33 0 0 26 26 0 15

WOODLAND 764 8 0 0 69 0 0 687

SHRUBLAND 53 9 0 0 15 0 0 29

GRASSLAND 1672 614 9 5 988 2 0 54

BARE LAND 72 48 0 3 12 1 0 8

WATER 36 3 0 0 7 0 21 5

Results: Accuracy

Accuracy required by Council Regulations (EEC) N° 959/93 on other crop statistics and (EEC) N° 837/90 on cereals production :

Level Crop Max Error Cv (%)

National

Cereals (total) 1

Permanent Crops (total) 2

Permanent Grassland 2

Crop > 50000ha (500 km²) 5

Regional Crop > 50000ha (500Km²) 5

Results: LUCAS 2006 Survey – CZ (before QC)

LUCAS 2006 Area (Km²) CV

Built-Up Area 858.29 17.89

Non built-up Area 2803.04 8.81

Cereals 17303.29 1.77

Root Crops 943.98 9.87

Non permanent industrial crops 4532.27 4.17

Dry pulses, Vegetables and Flowers 747.98 10.95

Fodder crops 1598.48 7.18

Permanent crops 1160.36 12.18

Other permanent crops 195.49 22.00

Forest area 27476.57 1.73

Other wooded area 725.45 19.75

Shrubland 1375.24 13.94

Grassland 17025.07 2.25

Bare Land 1002.69 16.80

Water 1118.81 9.73

Results: LUCAS 2006 Survey – EU11

Area (Km²) Variance CV(%)% of total

area

A1 BUILT-UP AREAS 38831.82 1092127.55 2.69 1.68%

A2 ARTIFICIAL NON BUILT-UP AREAS 88527.88 2029355.73 1.61 3.82%

B1 CEREALS 439527.35 2593461.61 0.37 18.97%

B2 ROOT CROPS (Sugar beet, potatoes,…) 29484.16 274222.91 1.78 1.27%

B3NON PERMANENT INDUSTRIAL CROPS

(Sunflower, rapeseed, soya,…) 67534.15 562052.95 1.11 2.91%

B4 DRY PULSES, VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS 23467.72 279808.51 2.25 1.01%

B5 FODDER CROPS 26698.99 220499.13 1.76 1.15%

B7 PERMANENT CROPS (Apple trees…) 33809.26 354714.07 1.76 1.46%

B8 OTHER PERMANENT CROPS (Vineyard..) 72813.53 429389.65 0.90 3.14%

C1 FOREST AREA 576669.95 7025437.16 0.46 24.89%

C2 OTHER WOODED AREA 58806.86 1643616.30 2.18 2.54%

D0 SHRUBLAND 123980.26 2984734.60 1.39 5.35%

E0 GRASSLAND 519808.24 4892881.12 0.43 22.44%

E01 Grassland with sparse tree/shrub cover 118719.45 2127507.85 1.23 5.12%

E02 Grassland without tree/shrub cover 401088.79 3423232.50 0.46 17.31%

F0 BARE LAND 66385.27 888045.66 1.42 2.87%

G0 WATER 38315.03 488739.34 1.82 1.65%

Results: LUCAS 2006 Survey – CZ

What is LUCAS? Methodology Results Conclusions

Conclusions

LUCAS is not covering all countries Sampling focused on agricultural area but also covering all strata Stratification available Around 1.000.000 photos taken. Photos have to be checked and

“anonymised” before transmission Follow-up evaluation of landscape classification, Grid data

combination, comparison with other surveys, further use of LUCAS data, technological watch. Call for tender for “erosion risk” features

Photo-interpretation is not an easy process without ground information (confusion matrix) …

Further conclusion … nor is it observing on the ground!