1. Some notes about Italian experience with Land use surveys
Ministry of
Agriculture
Working group on Land use
Some notes about Italian experience with Land use surveys
Marco Ballin – Maurizio Esposito
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

2. Outline of the talk Ministry of Agriculture What is AGRIT
Popolus (Permanently Observed POints for Land Use Statistics)
the point frame sampling survey on agriculture
future developments
Some notes about integration
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

3. Ministry of Agriculture
What is agrit
Ministry of
Agriculture
Agrit is a growing system of surveys on land use.
It is included in the Italian National Statistical Programme under responsibility of Ministry of Agriculture
It is constituted by two parts:
the first one cover the whole national territory
the second one is, for the moment, carried out mainly on the agriculture areas
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

4. Ministry of Agriculture
Popolus
Ministry of
Agriculture
First Part
It is mainly concerned with the building up and maintenance of a frame named POPOLUS
The frame contains points (regular squared grid, one point every 500 metres).
Each point has been classified by photo interpretation accordingly to the following nomenclature:
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

5. Popolus

6. Ministry of Agriculture
Popolus
Ministry of
Agriculture
The updating plan foresees that one third of the points is updated each year by photo interpretation
each pixel of ortophoto is 0,25 square metre (0.5mt x 0.5 mt)
points out of are classified of interest for agriculture statistics.
of them have been linked with administrative data
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

7. Ministry of Agriculture
Point frame sampling survey on agriculture
Ministry of
Agriculture
It is a sampling survey mainly concerned on agricultural area
about points (out of of interest for agriculture) are observated each year
Stratification is defined on the base of:
Administrative localization
Land cover: Crops, permanent crops, meadows and pasture, trees outside forestry and rural houses
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

8. Ministry of Agriculture
Point frame sampling survey on agriculture
Ministry of
Agriculture
Sample size proportional to strata size
Each point is visited up to 3 times a year:
First visit: may-June (land use and yield of wheat and durum)
Second visit: July-August (mainly for area and yield of sugar beet, tomatoes, and only area of maize and soya
Third visit (September October): use of mais
Some slight differences in the calendar are due to regions’ climate conditions
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

9. Ministry of Agriculture
Point frame sampling survey on agriculture
Ministry of
Agriculture
It is going to play a central role in the land use and in the agriculture statistical system
It will be used to supply part of data requested by the new crop regulation:
Table 1: columns 2-4, 7, 8, 11
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

10. Coefficient of variation (%)
Quality results
Ministry of
Agriculture
Precision: National level
Land use
Area
Coefficient of variation (%)
Cereals
Durum wheat
1,1
Common wheat
1,7
Barley
2,5
Maize 1
Industrial crops
Sunflower seed
3,5
Soya 3
Sugar beet
65.724
5,1
Vegetables
Tomatoes
96.372
4,3
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

11. Coefficient of variation (%)
Quality results
Ministry of
Agriculture
Precision: regional level (piemonte)
Land use
Area
Coefficient of variation (%)
Cereals
Durum wheat
2.815
22.6
Common wheat
92.752 4
Barley
27.305
7.6
Maize
2.4
Industrial crops
Sunflower seed
3.828
20.7
Soya
4778
18.8
Sugar beet
963
38.1
Vegetables
Tomatoes
2.520 23
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

12. Ministry of Agriculture
Future developments
Ministry of
Agriculture
(under implementation) Improvement of technical aspects:
use of administrative data and territory digital model for survey design (improving stratification,estimation method, etc.)
(under evaluation) Inclusion of environmental purposes:
soil erosion, land management, presence of residuals of fertilizers, etc.
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

13. Ministry of Agriculture
Future developments
Ministry of
Agriculture
Which type of integration?
it should be recognized that integration has a cost and different users could ask for different degrees of integration
In establishing, planning or improving the integration of a set o statistical tools, surveys and actors it could help to indicate which of the quality dimensions (relevance and completeness, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability) have the priority and which tools and methodologies are available to obtain the expected results under resource constraints
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

14. Ministry of Agriculture
Future developments
Ministry of
Agriculture
Which type of integration?
In order to clarify the purpose and level of integration, the following dimensions could be considered:
· dimension 1: Data collection
· dimension 2: Data analysis
· dimension 3: Data dissemination
· dimension 4: Institutional framework
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

15. Ministry of Agriculture
Future developments
Ministry of
Agriculture
Which type of integration?
Under the first dimension (Data collection) should be included all tools that aim at establishing a closer link between results belonging to different statistical processes or statistical units (observed by different institutions, with different surveys, in different domains).
The objective of this integration in data collection is mainly to improve coherence and comparability.
f.e. the establishment of a common nomenclature used by different survey is an action that could be classified under this axis
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

16. Ministry of Agriculture
Future developments
Ministry of
Agriculture
Which type of integration?
The second dimension (Data analysis) comprises all statistical tools and methods that aim at linking data already collected from different sources.
The objective of this dimension is mainly to improve relevance and completeness, coherence and comparability and accuracy.
The integration in data analysis depends to a large extent on the integration at the data collection level.
The cost consists mainly in training of survey statisticians and acquisition of software.
Estimation techniques, meta-analysis, statistical matching are some examples of tool that can be classified under this axis
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

17. Ministry of Agriculture
Future developments
Ministry of
Agriculture
Which type of integration?
The third dimension (Data disseminations) includes all tools and methods that facilitate users’ access to data pertaining to different data sources and domains.
The objective of this integration therefore is to improve accessibility.
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

18. Ministry of Agriculture
Future developments
Ministry of
Agriculture
Which type of integration?
The fourth dimension (institutional framework) includes all governance arrangements that facilitate the coordination between different data producers and between users and producers in all phases of the statistical process.
The main objective of this dimension is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the statistical system
luxembourg, 20 october 2009

19. Ministry of
Agriculture