Land Cover in Europe lessons learned from CORINE

Land Cover in Europe lessons learned from CORINE land cover and new perspectives 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/COR 0 -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

Environmental change … and mapping vs. technical progress Hand made maps CLC 1990 First GIS electronic mapping CLC 2000 2006 Web-based Information systems CLC 2012 +

Land cover products CLC 2006 Built-up area / sealing CLC Changes

Land Ecosystem Account: Landscape Ecological Potential Corine land cover map (CLC is derived from satellite images) Green Landscape Index (derived from CLC) Nature Value (Naturilis, derived from Natura 2000 designated areas) and Landscape Ecological Potential (LEP) 2000, by 1 km² grid cell LEP 2000 by NUTS 2/3 Fragmentation (Effective Mesh Size (MEFF) derived from Tele. Atlas Roads and CLC)

From changes to flows Change Matrix (44 x 43=1932 possible changes) summarized into flows LCF 1 2000 2006 LCF 8 LCF 5 LCF 6 LCF 4 LCF 2 LCF 3 LCF 7 LCF 9

Country Analyses (1) (e. g. Bulgaria) http: //www. eea. europa. eu/themes/landuse • Change of main land-cover classes 2000 - 2006

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

Regional and thematic analysis (e. g. wetlands)

Going global Glob. Corine 2009 • Environmental accounting UNSD SEEA revision 2012/2013, green GDP etc. • from Glob. Cover to Glob. Corine: ESA & EEA, GEO-GEOSS Source: ESA, 2008

CLC for integrated assessments Spatial Integration of Environmental & Socio-Economic Data Mapping Socio-economic Economic statistics Sampling Individual Sites Monitoring

Statistical Data and Corine e. g. down-scaling population density http: //www. eea. europa. eu/data-and-maps/figures/population-density-1

Dissemination and user support Land use data centre • http: //www. eea. europa. eu/themes/landuse

Towards operational land cover monitoring (GIO Land 2011 -2013) 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 2006 update and 2012 map based on Image 2012 (-1) and CLC 2006 • Re-analysis 2012 -2006 -2000 1990 20 xx … 2000 2006 2012 …

Continental Component (2) + 5 High Resolution Layers (HRLs) 20 x 20 m resolution for validated 100 x 100 m (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 wetness 5. water surfaces: small water bodies complementary to WFD and reference data

Local analysis (e. g. soil sealing / imperviousness 2006) 20 m * 20 m

Soil Imperviousness 2006 - 2009 Berlin 2009 2006 Courtesy: Geoland-2

Next steps Ø Improve product (HRLs as first step) Ø Improve production process (share between industry and Member States) and cost benefit Ø Improve production time (from ~ 3 to 1 year) for more frequent updating Ø Adapt to user requirements Ø Make use of national data and monitoring Ø Make use of public participation (citizen science / Eye on Earth) Ø Embed in INSPIRE, SEIS and national activities

Appropriate handling Ø CLC as pan-European harmonized product (EEA 39) Ø Information homogenous and comparable across Europe Ø Due to its granularity CLC tends to underestimate trends (scaling issue) Ø Changes << 5 ha are in some cases not visible (e. g. land take by holiday houses in Norway) Ø Need for re-analysis (better data vs. change detection) Appropriate use of information not “right or wrong”

Conclusions Ø Ø 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) Ø Free and open access to data, tools and products Ø Production enhancement (faster, cheaper, better integrating national activities) Ø Product enhancement (content, timeliness) keep it running

Thank you very much for your attention! http: //www. eea. europa. eu markus. erhard@eea. europa. eu