Land accounts at the EEA Jean-Louis Weber & Ferràn Paramo 3 February 2004

LEAC project(s) at the EEA  1.2 Focusing and integrating the system  Land accounts  3.2 Landscape and spatial change assessments  Environmental accounting of land use and ecosystems  Sustainable spatial development of regions of Europe (focus: coastal zones)

Land & Ecosystems Accounts (LEAC) Pilot project run by EEA & ETCTE (UAB & GISAT) with the support of Eurostat; UN methodology (SEEA) Applications for European coast and 4 CEE Countries Implementation for Europe with CLC2000

LEAC present outcome Stratification of the territory into accounting units: –Administrative units –Physical, ecological zones –Dominant landscape types Definition and test of accounting methodology: –Land cover stocks –Land cover changes (from CLCy to CLCz) –Land cover flows (which group changes into processes) 2 Reports and 2 Posters available at the Library of:

Why accounting for Land? Produce synthetic assessments, keeping track of the geographic differences Analyse the relation between the changes of land cover and land use, in physical and monetary terms Land accounts as a starting point for ecosystems accounts Land and natural resource accounting Disseminate information at the appropriate scale (for users…)

First, avoiding this… Net intensification of land use by Sea Catchments Net intensification of land use by Country Net intensification of land use by Biogeographic regionsNet intensification of land use by Watershed

and this… Changes in Tourism intensity, to , by NUTS2

Integration of data & indicators within accounts E.g. IRENA 12 & 24 indicators E.g. Urban sprawl indicator E.g. Coastal zones assessment Accounts pre-process (assimilate) and classify (model) data for facilitating further use Assimilation rules are fully documented and transparent

The concept of stock & flow accounts Gains Losses

From many land cover changes to flows of consumption of cover and formation of cover

Nomenclature of Land Cover Flows (Level 1) LCF1Urban land management LCF2Urban sprawl LCF3Extension of economic sites and infrastructures LCF4Agricultural rotation and intensification LCF5Conversion of land to agriculture LCF6Forests creation and management LCF7Water body creation and management LCF8Changes of land cover due to natural and multiple causes

From many land cover units to regions & to landscape types

Land accounting units Grids Administrative Units River basins Sea catchments Bio-geographical regions Coastal units Dominant Landscape Types 

CORINE Land Cover Standard Classification

CORILIS intensity themes – 4 CEEC

CORILIS Intensity « semi-natural »

Classification of Dominant Landscape Types A1 Urban dense areas A2 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 Composite rural landscape B21 Lowland composite rural landscape B211 Low coastal composite rural landscape B212 High coastal composite rural landscape B213 Low inland composite rural landscape B22 Upland composite rural landscape B23 Mountain composite rural landscape C1 Forested landscape C11 Lowland forested landscape C111 Low coastal forested landscape C112 High coastal forested landscape C113 Low inland coastal 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 open semi-natural or natural landscape C212 High 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 C3 Landscape with no dominant land cover character C31 Lowland with no dominant land cover character C311 Low landscape with no dominant land cover character C312 High landscape with no dominant land cover character C313 Low inland landscape with no dominant land cover character C32 Upland with no dominant land cover character C33 Mountain with no dominant land cover character

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)

Main land cover flows on European coast,

Land Accounting Units/ Coastal Units

Trends in marginal land on European coast, , ha

Urban extension compared to Farmland (Net Change), European coast, , hectares

(a) Urban sprawl + Extension of infrastructures, European coast, , NUTS3

(b) Intensification of Agriculture + Conversion of land to Agriculture, European coast, , NUTS3

(c) Farmland abandonment, European coast, , NUTS3

Objectives for 2004 Production of LEAC with new data for validating the model Development of a protocol for producing accounts with CLC2000 on a continuous basis Development of the first applications required Development of a query tool for extracting accounts tables, indicators and maps

Production of LEAC with new data for validating the model CLC2000 Km² grid Validated set of land units Updated nomenclatures Solve methodological issues such as the inconsistency of dates

Development of a protocol for producing accounts with CLC2000 on a continuous basis Use of CLC2000 data as soon as they are available Tackle the issue of successive versions Return results to countries (e.g. such as regional profiles) Supply accounts for other projects (EEA, ETCTE, ETCNBP…)

Development of the first applications required ETCTE technical annex products (incl. IRENA 12 & 24…) SOER 2005 sub-reports 1 (Households) and 5 (Biodiversity) Input to ecosystem accounts EEA anniversary ?

Development of a query tool for extracting accounts tables, indicators and maps Let the users choose between the millions of possible indicators at their relevant scale (incl. the surroundings of their backyards…) Introduce more flexibility in EEA’s assessments and indicators when they relate to land