London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Development of Land and Ecosystems Accounts in Europe

Implementation of land cover accountsDiscussion of accounts of land use

functions

Jean-Louis Weber, EEA

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Land & Ecosystems Accounts (LEAC)

• The SEEA methodological framework• 2 pilot project run by EEA & ETCTE (UAB & GISAT) with the support of Eurostat• Applications 1975-1990 for the European coast and 4 Central & Eastern Europe Countries, based on Corine land cover (CLC)

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

CLC 1990

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

CORINE Land Cover Aggregated Nomenclature (Level 1bis)

1 Artificial surfaces2 Agricultural areas

2.1+2.2 Arable Land & Permanent Crops2.3+2.4 Pastures & Heterogeneous

agricultural areas3 Forests and semi-natural areas

3.1 Forests3.2+3.2 Shrub and other semi-natural land

4 Wetlands5 Water bodies

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Status of the CLC2000 production (March 03)

+

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Example of CLC changes: Afforestation in a former mining area (Germany)

left: 1990, right: 2000

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

CLC2000 : Antwerp (city & harbour)Size of grid cells : 4 km x 4 km

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

CLC changes : Antwerp (city & harbour)Size of grid cells : 4 km x 4 km

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

LEAC are based on spatial analysis

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Framework of Land Accounts proposed by the UNECE task force, presented in Tokyo, 1996 …

CORE ACCOUNTS

Changes in Land cover/Land use

Biodiversity

Partitioning of land

Impacts of activities

Potentials of land

SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNTS, ISSUE ORIENTED

Sealing of soils

Artificiality

Productivity of land

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

… continued in the SEEA

Land cover changes matrix Land cover x land use matrix

Land cover (initial state)

Land cover (final state)

Land cover core account

Land use x activities matrix

economic decisions

natural causes

multiple causes

Lan

d c

ove

r

Act

iviti

es/ s

ecto

rs

Land cover flows due to Final

state

Land cover (final state)

Land use functions

Land use functions

Lan

d c

ove

r

(in

itia

l st

ate)

Lan

d c

ove

r flo

ws

Initial state

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

LEAC present outcome

• Stratification of the territory into accounting units:Administrative unitsPhysical, ecological zonesDominant landscape types

• Definition and test of accounting methodology:Land cover stocksLand cover changes (from CLCy to CLCz)Land cover flows (which group changes into processes)

• 2 Reports and 2 Posters available at the Library of: http://eea.eionet.eu.int:8980/Public/irc/eionet-circle/leac/home

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Land accounting units

• Grids

• Administrative Units

• River basins

• Sea catchments

• Bio-geographical regions

• Coastal units

• Dominant Landscape

Types

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

The relationship between basic and targeted accounts

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Account of Land Cover Flows of the European Coast

COMMENT: Loss of ecosystems potentials generated by the use of land

26 types of land cover (green) are used for the formation of 10 types of new land cover (orange). At this level of aggregation, the only reverse flow is farmland abandonment.

(NB: only changes > 1000 ha are considered)

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Main land cover flows on European coast, 1975-1990

Main land cover flows on European coast, 1975-1990 - ha

191860

103151

323569

160692

190425

415126

203852

121485

0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000 450000

Coastal erosion

Farmland abandonment

Recent extension of pasture, fallowland, set aside

Forests creation

Conversion of marginal land toagriculture

Intensification of agriculture

Planting of vineyards, fruit and olivetrees over arable & pasture

Urban sprawl+Extension of economicsites and infrastructures

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Trends in marginal land on European coast, 1975-90, ha

0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000

A1-Urban dense areas

A2-Dirspersed urban

B1-Broad pattern agriculture

B2-Composite rural landscape

C1-Forested landscape

C2-Open natural landscape

C3-No dominance

Farmland abandonment Conversion of marginal land to agriculture

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

+

- =

Net Intensification of Land Use,

European coast, 1975-90, NUTS3

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Forest vs. Agriculture flows in the 4 CEEC

London Group MeetingRome, 5-7 November 2003

Next steps

• Tests of the use of the map of dominant landscape types in areas such as agri-environment indicators, ecosystems assessment, scenario making

• Production of land cover accounts with CLC2000• Analysis of trends of European territory in terms of

regional land cover flows• Further development of accounts by land use

functions (continuation of the case study on coastal tourism)

• Broad dissemination of data & maps on the EEA website

• Contacts: jean-louis.weber@eea.eu.intfrancoise.breton@uab.es (ETCTE)