Presentation of Land Accounts

1. Presentation of Land Accounts JLW

2. Nomenclatures and definitions • Methodology, bibliography • Spatial Assessments Builder LEAC Home • Introduction to land accounts

3. & Land Use Ecosystems Assessing land cover change • For understanding changes in Europe’s environments, using spatially distributed data and information on ecosystems and human activities is a key factor, as they: • can help identify where conflicts in use of the territory take place, and under which type of pressure; • contribute to the organisation of data and knowledge from existing monitoring networks and research programmes and help in designing efficient sampling schemes for new monitoring networks; • provide important input to understanding interactions, in particular when very heterogeneous information from the bio-physical, social and economic realms need to be integrated and • can be up- and downscaled to the appropriate levels of decision making of the various public and private bodies. • Land cover is an IMAGE of both land use by human activities and ecosystems.Changes in land cover: indices of conflicts in land use and degradation of ecosystems • Changes in land cover are indices of conflicts in land use and degradation of ecosystems. • The land cover map and database contribute in structuring and integrating information on the natural potentials of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in relation to their actual use by economic and social activities.

4. Accounting for land cover change • In the context of the development of integrated spatial assessments, land accounts for Europe are being implemented by the EEA starting with land cover accounts produced from Corine Land Cover 1990 and 2000. • The purpose of land accounts is to observe, qualify and quantify the cover of land resulting from ecosystem and land use. Stocks of land cover are described as well as their change. NOTE: Changes in structure, patterns or quality are included in accounts. Monetary values can be associated to the physical units used for land cover accounts. Indicators can be easily derived from accounts.

5. Methodology: ref. Land & Ecosystem Accounts (LEAC) • Part of the SEEA 2003 (Integrated System of Environmental and Economic Accounting) • Accounts in monetary AND in physical units • Tested in Europe by UNECE, Eurostat and EEA (France, UK, Germany, European coast, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania) • EU-wide implementation of land cover accounts with CLC2000 in 2004 • Test of ecosystem accounts of wetlands

6. Accounting for land cover change using Corine Land Cover • What is Corine Land Cover? • Corine Land Cover is a map of the European environmental landscape intended for use by policy makers as well as others. Based on interpretation of satellite images, CLC provides comparable digital maps of land cover for each country for much of Europe. This is useful for environmental analysis and comparisons as well as for policy making and assessment. No other land cover information programme in the world covers such a wide geographical area in such detail. • CLC2000 shows Europe’s land cover in the year 2000 and, through comparison with the previous set of data and maps from 1990, the changes in land use that took place during the 1990s. It covers the 25 EU countries, Liechtenstein and most of the accession countries. • Why is CLC important? • Satellite-based mapping complements on-the-ground monitoring of the environment by showing the wider land use context in which individual sites exist. For instance, it allows a specific land cover feature – such as a forest or a landfill site – to be viewed in the context of the surrounding environment on which that feature impacts or which impacts on it. Ground-level monitoring networks cannot capture this wider context and the interaction with it. • Furthemore, consistent geo-referenced information on land cover is key for undertaking the “integrated” environmental assessments - looking at land, ecosystems and water courses together – that are most useful to policy-makers. • How will CLC 2000 be used? • CLC shows the visible aspects of both ecosystems (forests, lakes, pastures…) and use of land for human activities (housing, food production, transport…), reveals the changes in them over time, and helps in understanding how they may interact in a given place.  • The particular interest of CLC2000 is that information is supplied on land cover and its change at a fairly detailed scale and in a consistent way all across Europe. This will allow the identification of trends at local, regional, national and European levels, enabling policy makers to take appropriate action.

7. Nomenclature of flows Explanatory notes What do Land Cover Accounts tell ? (1) • Land cover accounts group, summarize and interpret the 44x43 = 1892 possible one-to-one changes between CLC land cover classes. When grouped, the changes are called flows of land cover (with a code starting with “lcf”) and are classified according to major land use processes such as: • lcf1 Urban land management • lcf2 Urban residential sprawl • lcf3 Sprawl of economic sites and infrastructures • lcf4 Agriculture internal conversions • lcf5 Conversion from other land cover to agriculture • lcf6 Withdrawal of farming • lcf7 Forests creation and management • lcf8 Water bodies creation and management • lcf9 Changes of Land Cover due to natural and multiple causes • The nomenclature of flows is organized on 3 levels, coded lcf… • Each flow is described in explanatory notes • Each flow is measured as (accounted for) a consumption of initial land cover (circa 1990, + - 4 years) for amounts (p, q, r,…) as well as formation of new land cover (circa 2000, + - 1 year) for amounts (v, w,…). • First rule: for a given land cover flow lcf…, consumption of land cover (p, q, r,…) = formation of land cover (v, w,…)

8. Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 What do Land Cover Accounts tell ? (2) • Land cover accounts record stocks and flows. For each land cover type, the basic equation is: Initial stock – consumption + formation = Final stock • A first indicator summarizes change: Net Change in land cover. It is defined in 2 equivalent ways: • Final stock – Initial stock or • Formation - Consumption • Net Change in land cover (or Net Formation of land cover) can be calculated in absolute terms (hectares) or as percentage of the stock of the initial year • Net Change in land cover is just one indicator, based on the assumption that compensations is possible between consumption and formation. This is sometimes true (e.g. when managing felling of forests and creation of new forests to keep a balance between harvesting and natural increase of trees ), not always (e.g. when too much extensive felling impacts negatively on the quality of the ecosystem). Assessments should should not be confused by using only one number. The Land accounts tool provided by the EEA gives the possibility for the user of finding, behind headline or core indicators • what are the main components of the change? and • where did it happen?

9. Example 2 Example of simple land cover balance (1) Ireland 1990-2000 The land account query tool allows producing directly this table for any of the land units referenced in the system

10. Example 3 Example of simple land cover balance (2) Ireland 1990-2000 The land account query tool allows producing directly this table for any of the land units referenced in the system

11. Example of land cover balance (3) Ireland 1990-2000 The land account query tool allows producing directly this table for any of the land units referenced in the system

12. Land Accounts for Europe • Summary profiles (tables, graphs & maps) of European countries and regions • Full access to land accounts databases (downloads for expert users) • Background maps for assessing potential impacts of land cover change • Spatial Assessments Builder • A tool on the EEA website for querying land account databases online • Do it yourself! Carry out spatial assessments of your territory, from the whole Europe to your region • Quick start package: • Select your region • Compute headline indicators • Use land accounts for analysing what is behind the indicators • Compare your region to others • Map your results (tbd) • Edit your report • Import your results into your own system

13. Spatial Assessments Builder - A tool on the EEA website • A tool on the EEA website for querying land account databases online

14. Consumption of Land Cover 1990 Go to details Lombardia Compare your region Veneto Toscana Sardegna Total Map your indicators Spatial Assessments Builder – Do it yourself ! • Do it yourself ! Carry out spatial assessments of your territory, from the whole Europe to your region… Analyse indicators

15. Spatial Assessments Builder - Go to details • Do it yourself! Carry out spatial assessments of your territory, from the whole Europe to your region Go to details, find the big numbers !

16. Spatial Assessments Builder – Compare your region • Do it yourself! Carry out spatial assessments of your territory, from the whole Europe to your region Compare your region, find differences

17. Spatial Assessments Builder - Map your indicators • Do it yourself! Carry out spatial assessments of your territory, from the whole Europe to your region Map your indicators ! Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (1994-2000)Conversion of pasture to arable land & permanent crops MINUSExtension of fallow land & set asideThe background map represents the density of pasture in the landscape(probability to find pasture within 10 km distance) Southern ItalyUrban sprawl (1990-2000)Urban sprawl in Southern Italy develops around Roma & Napoli as well as over the countryside.

18. Select your country (or several countries, all Europe…) • Select your region (several, all the regions in your country, regions in several countries…): region types are NUTS, River Basins, DLT • Combine (3 max) spatial types (e.g. NUTS & Coastal strip) • Compute headline indicators • Urban sprawl • Agriculture land uptake by urban sprawl & infrastructures • Forest and natural land uptake by agriculture • Net formation of forests • Net formation of wetlands… • Use land accounts for analysing what is behind the indicators: Find which are the main components of change • Look where it happens: Compare your region to others • Look where it happens: Map your results (tbd), combine accounting results and background maps • Edit your report • Import your results into your own system • Import the land accounts database for expert analysis Analytical & reporting units Spatial Assessments Builder: Quick start package

19. Explanatory notes Nomenclature of land cover flows lcf5 Conversion from other land cover to agriculture lcf51 Conversion from forest to agriculture lcf511 Intensive conversion from forest to agriculture lcf512 Diffuse conversion from forest to agriculture lcf52 Conversion from semi-natural land to agriculture lcf521 Intensive conversion from semi-natural land to agriculture lcf522 Diffuse conversion from semi-natural land to agriculture lcf53 Conversion from wetlands to agriculture lcf54 Conversion from developed areas to agriculture lcf6 Withdrawal of farming lcf61 Withdrawal of farming with woodland creation lcf62 Withdrawal of farming without significant woodland creation lcf7 Forests creation and management lcf71 Conversion from transitional woodland to forest lcf72 Forest creation, afforestation lcf73 Forests internal conversions lcf74 Recent felling and transition lcf8 Water bodies creation and management lcf81 Water bodies creation lcf82 Water bodies management lcf9 Changes of Land Cover due to natural and multiple causes lcf91 Semi-natural creation and rotation lcf911 Semi-natural creation lcf912 Semi-natural rotation lcf92 Forests and shrubs fires lcf93 Coastal erosion lcf94 Change in permanent snow & glaciers cover lcf99 Other changes and unknown NC No Change lcf1 Urban land management lcf11 Urban development/ infilling lcf12 Recycling of developed urban land lcf13 Development of green urban areas lcf2 Urban residential sprawl lcf21 Urban dense residential sprawl lcf22 Urban diffuse residential sprawl lcf3 Sprawl of economic sites and infrastructures lcf31 Sprawl of industrial & commercial sites lcf32 Sprawl of transport networks lcf33 Sprawl of harbours lcf34 Sprawl of airports lcf35 Sprawl of mines and quarrying areas lcf36 Sprawl of dumpsites lcf37 Construction lcf38 Sprawl of sport and leisure facilities lcf4 Agriculture internal conversions lcf41 Extension of set aside fallow land and pasture lcf411 Uniform extension of set aside fallow land and pasture lcf412 Diffuse extension of set aside fallow land and pasture lcf42 Internal conversions between annual crops lcf421 Conversion from arable land to permanent irrigation perimeters lcf422 Other internal conversions of arable land lcf43 Internal conversions between permanent crops lcf431 Conversion from olives groves to vineyards and orchards lcf432 Conversion from vineyards and orchards to olive groves lcf433 Other conversions between vineyards and orchards lcf44 Conversion from permanent crops to arable land lcf441 Conversion from permanent crops to permanent irrigation perimeters lcf442 Conversion from vineyards and orchards to non-irrigated arable land lcf443 Conversion from olive groves to non-irrigated arable land lcf444 Diffuse conversion from permanent crops to arable land lcf45 Conversion from arable land to permanent crops lcf451 Conversion from arable land to vineyards and orchards lcf452 Conversion from arable land to olive groves lcf453 Diffuse conversion from arable land to permanent crops lcf46 Conversion from pasture to arable and permanent crops lcf461 Conversion from pasture to permanent irrigation perimeters lcf462 Intensive conversion from pasture to non-irrigated arable land and permanent crops lcf463 Diffuse conversion from pasture to arable and permanent crops lcf47 Extension of agro-forestry

20. Explanatory notes of land cover flows

21. Land accounts can be extracted by: • Grids (presently of 3x3 km) • Administrative Units (presently NUTS0 to 3) • River basins (under revision) • Sea catchments • Bio-geographical regions (as for Natura2000) • Coastal units (under development – presently 10 km coastal strip) • For spatial assessments, land accounts can be combined with • Dominant Landscape Types • Component maps used for producing DLT (relief classes, smoothed CLC layers…) • Map of landscape natural potentials (provisional) • Urban morphological zones (available on this site) • River networks • Road networks (not available on this site) Back to Quick start package Land analytical and reporting units

22. Nomenclature of Dominant Landscape Types A1 AREAS DOMINATED BY DENSE URBAN COVER A11 Lowland areas dominated by dense urban cover A111 Low coastal areas dominated by dense urban cover A112 High coastal areas dominated by dense urban cover A113 Low inland areas dominated by dense urban cover A12 Upland areas dominated by dense urban cover A13 Mountain areas dominated by dense urban cover A2 DISPERSED URBAN AREAS A21 Lowland dispersed urban areas A211 Low coastal dispersed urban areas A212 High coastal dispersed urban areas A213 Low inland dispersed urban areas A22 Upland dispersed urban areas A23 Mountain dispersed urban areas B1 BROAD PATTERN INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE B11 Lowland broad pattern intensive agriculture B111 Low coastal broad pattern intensive agriculture B112 High coastal broad pattern intensive agriculture B113 Low inland broad pattern intensive agriculture B12 Upland broad pattern intensive agriculture B13 Mountain broad pattern intensive agriculture B2 RURAL MOSAIC AND PASTURE LANDSCAPE B21 Lowland rural mosaic and pasture landscape B211 Low coastal rural mosaic and pasture landscape B212 High coastal rural mosaic and pasture landscape B213 Low inland rural mosaic and pasture landscape B22 Upland rural mosaic and pasture landscape B23 Mountain rural mosaic and pasture landscape C1 FORESTED LANDSCAPE C11 Lowland forested landscape C111 Low coastal forested landscape C112 High coastal forested landscape C113 Low inland forested landscape C12 Upland forested landscape C13 Mountain forested landscape C2 OPEN SEMI-NATURAL OR NATURAL LANDSCAPE C21 Lowland open semi-natural or natural landscape C211 Low coastal open semi-natural or natural landscape C212 High coastal open semi-natural or natural landscape C213 Low inland open semi-natural or natural landscape C22 Upland open semi-natural or natural landscape C23 Mountain open semi-natural or natural landscape D1 COMPOSITE LANDSCAPE D11 Lowland composite landscape D111 Low coastal composite landscape D112 High coastal composite landscape D113 Low inland composite landscape D12 Upland composite landscape D13 Mountain composite landscape

23. Potentials & limitations/ Corine Land Cover • Corine Land Cover classification and concepts are well adapted to the European landscape patterns where mixed or composite types are predominant. • CLC is an analysis and mapping of landscape units on the basis of their physiognomy and their radiometric characteristics. CLC is NOT a classification of pixels NOR a survey of hectares of a given homogenous type (as monitored by farm surveys or area sampling surveys). • CLC mapping units are images of elementary landscape systems that can be interpreted, simultaneously, as land use systems and ecosystems. Therefore, CLC is a relevant background reference for analysing potential conflicts in the use of land and impacts of land use pressure on biodiversity and organizing and integrating other sources of information accordingly. • The smallest mapped unit in CLC is of 25 ha, recognizing landscape units as systems; as a consequence CLC gives a fair description of land units surface and distribution as well as of trends in change. Change in land cover happen often via the so-called mixed classes (“discontinuous urban fabric” or “land principally occupied by agriculture with significant areas of natural vegetation”) that can be considered, in case of change, as transition areas. Therefore, mixed classesfacilitate the interpretation of the change process. • To a large extent, more or less all CLC classes, monitored from satellite imagery, include heterogeneous micro-areas of less than 25 ha. Therefore, CLC cannot, in no way, deliver a very accurate assessment of surfaces (e.g. as it is requested for agriculture statistics used for calculating crops and related subsidies). • CLC deliver information at the 1/100 000 scale, not sufficient for local applications such as urban planning, forest management or risk assessment, that request more detailed scales. For these thematic applications, maps at the 1/50 000 to 1/10 000 may be necessary. However, CLC being a multi-thematic map can be usefully overlaid with these maps in order to inform about the neighbourhood of these zones and change in the environmental context. • Due to the 25 ha rule, CLC land units will disappear or pop-up when they, resp., come just below or just above this threshold. This is consistent with monitoring landscape systems. Considering the mapping of changes in CLC2000, the smallest mapped change is of 5 ha. Therefore, it may happen (rarely in fact) that 5-24 ha change influence the creation or deletion of a small zone. For avoiding any mis-interpretation, the user will have access to 3 datasets: CLC1990-revised, CLC change 1990-2000 and CLC2000. • CLC2000 has been prepared and quality controlled very carefully by the EEA. CLC1990, an experimental programme, didn’t met the same standards but can be considered, after 10 years of an extensive use, as of a fairly good quality as well. More, during the CLC2000 process, the original CLC1990 has been revised for fixing possible errors and eliminating geometric discrepancies that could generate false change. • However, problems will remain according to the dates of the first CLC, ranging from 1986 to 1994; for comparisons, the gap is mitigated by calculating annual averages (although some inconsistency will remain considering the median year)

24. Potentials & limitations/ Land Cover Accounts • Land cover accounts, as an application of the Land & Ecosystem Accounts (LEAC) of the Integrated system of Economic and Environmental Accounts (UN, SEEA2003) are thoroughly presented in the 2 feasibility studies carried out by the EEA and ETCTE with the support of Eurostat in 2001-2002. Reports on the methodology are available at • http://eea.eionet.eu.int/Public/irc/eionet-circle/leac/library • Land Cover Accounts are based on CLC1990 & 2000 and benefit of the high quality of the input data. • 25 & 5 ha issue: land accounts make a full use of CLC classification (in particular, the interpretation of transition processes via changes in mixed classes), which is based on the 25 ha criterion. It is therefore recommended to compute land accounts on the basis of the difference between 1990 and 2000. However, for local applications, the database of change can be used; the consequence is that there will be no creation/deletion of small CLC zones (close to the threshold value of 25 ha) but, in the rare cases when aggregation of small changes (between 5 & 24 ha) to larger zones is not possible, the creation of pseudo-zones of less than 24 hectares. • For facilitating computation, land cover accounts are presented in a grid of 3x3 km. All the CLC values are kept in each grid cell, no generalisation takes place for these values. These grid cells are, in a second step, attributed with codes describing their involvement in the various landscape analytical and reporting units of LEAC. In this second step, only one code is given, for simplicity, to each grid cell for one given land unit type (the only exception being the coastline, which splits the cells, only the land part being kept in the accounts). This creates an artefact and some generalisation for the border of the zones (stair case effect). The inconvenience is very small when computing zones of some dimension. It can be a problem when analysing accounts at a very local level and requires some care from the user. In the latter case, LEAC should be considered as delivering at this level a contextual information more than an accurate measurement. (Using a 1x1 km grid is one of the possibility presently explored for future improvements, the challenge being the rapidity of data processing offered to users) • Classification of land cover flows. This is version 1, resulting from the feasibility studies (v. 0) and subsequent revisions after discussion with experts in agri-environment and forestry. Basically, the classification of land cover flows distinguished change between broad land cover classes and internal change internal to these classes. Built up from the detailed level of CLC (44 land cover types), the classification makes room for all the changes, keeping the grand total the same and avoiding the traditional problem met when aggregating the conventional land cover change matrix. • Land cover flows are described in explanatory notes. They are defined according to the interpretation of the main change process revealed by land cover change. Analysis of land cover flows supplies a rapid vision of the processes taking place. However, in the case of important change, cross-checking accounting results with the detailed matrix of change (supplied in the information package) might be useful to make sure if any particular event is taking place. • Land analytical and reporting units and coastline come from existing databases, and their quality and accuracy varies accordingly. Improvements are expected with the Inspire programme of EC. • Background layers & maps of dominant landscape types, landscape natural potentials and intensity of CLC types in various neighbourhoods (Corilis methodology) are available to users. Such background maps are extremely useful for analysing what is happening, how change is distributed over space, what are the conflicts in land use. Presently, these are provisional maps (please, always mention “provisional” when presenting applications based on such maps). They are submitted to the discussion of various scientific communities familiar with ecological landscape mapping, ecological corridors issues and multi-scales analysis.