1. Review of JRC work on measuring ecosystem services in Europe
Agnieszka Romanowicz
JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE
Institute of Environment and Sustainability
Land Resource Management Unit

2. The JRC inside the European Commission
Commissioner
Tibor Navracsics
Education, Culture, Youth and Sport
President
Jean-Claude Juncker
28 Commission Members
Director-General
Vladimir Šucha
Joint Research Centre
16 September 2019

3. Overview Established in1957
Only Commission Directorate General carrying out direct research
7 institutes in 5 countries
3,068 staff (35% short-term)
Corporate Services – Brussels
IRMM – Geel, Belgium - ITU – Karlsruhe, Germany and Ispra, Italy
IET – Petten, The Netherlands and Ispra, Italy
IPSC – Ispra, Italy
IES – Ispra, Italy
IHCP – Ispra, Italy
IPTS – Seville, Spain
ITU – Karlsruhe, Germany
1400 publications – all JRC publications (c20000) accessible on-line via database JRC home page, searchable by keyword (publications repository)
Approx half of all publications peer-reviewed.
Earned income – 15% of budget (set by Council and EP) earned from participating in FP7 projects, working with regional authorities and industry.

4. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) the Commission's in-house science service
Provides EU policies with independent, evidence-based scientific and technical support throughout the whole policy cycle.
Works in support of other Commission services, EU Institutions, and Member States, in close cooperation with industry, universities, and research organisations in the EU and worldwide.
Is independent of industrial and national interests, has access to confidential information, and provides on-tap fast and flexible response.

5. Environment and Sustainability
To provide scientific and technical support to EU policies for the protection of the environment and the more efficient and sustainable management of natural resources at global and continental scales
16 September 2019

6. Priorities Resource efficiency → Greener & sustainable growth
ICT for the environment → Digital Earth
Eco-Innovation and
bio-economy
Agricultural production
& sustainable supply
Prospects for water
Climate change
mitigation & adaptation
Global forecasting
of crop production
C-fr
Food security &
greening the CAP
Clean and plentiful
water for all
Climate-resilient society
Keep the planet
blue (integrating
marine, coastal and
inland waters)
Balancing supply
and demand
Adaptation to
climate change
Innovation
technology for
monitoring &
controlling
CAP reform
Geo-information and
tools for CAP
implementation
Monitoring targets
of the WFD
Safeguarding
Europe’s water
resources
(Blueprint)
Respond to climate
& global change
Sustainable urban
living
Assessing regional
investment
polices
Integrated assessment
of urban sustainability
Building climate
resilience for growth
& development
Integrated
sustainability
assessments
Mapping distribution
of well-being
Vulnerability/Resilience
assessment
(case studies)
Sustainable
consumption and
production
BIG data
analytics
Preserving
natural capital
Info services for
weather/climate
sensitive sectors
Information system
for urban
air pollution
Management of
natural resources (air, land, soil,
forest, water..)
Integrating climate
change impact
modelling &
observations
Citizens and
open digital
science
Preserving natural
conditions
Forecasting
crop yields
EU-28, early warning
of food insecurity
in Africa
Standards for
growth
Air pollution
mitigation
assessment
Alert systems for
weather-driven
disasters
Cities of today
INSPIRE and
Reference data

7. Past cooperation with the EEA
Linking land accounts with NPP JRC data set ( )
Cooperation on water issues including water accounts
Collection/exchange of river discharges data sets
Cooperation during early stages of land use modelling (currently called LUISA)
16 September 2019

8. 16 September 2019

9. Ecosystem services
Scientific work not replicable and accessible much later than produced
H2020 projects case studies difficult to use at EU level
Internal reports for e.g. DGs  most of this work can be easily accessible
Direct agreement (AA) for specific work package
16 September 2019

10. Land as a resource Raising awareness about :
the value of land as a resource for crucial ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating, cultural, etc.);
the limitation of the resource and how it is affected by land take and land degradation;
how the gap can increase particularly in the context of global challenges (increase in population, food demand, bioenergy, climate change)
Providing pointers for further action at EU level:
Evaluate the effectiveness of current policy instruments at National, EU and global levels;
Define the sustainable level of ambition for a set of objectives (targets?) for pressures, state, impacts or responses
Assess options for EU contribution to a more sustainable management of land as a resource.

11. Land use efficiency: towards a definition?
Maximizing the net benefits from land use,
Value added that is related to a specific territory (e.g. whole value chain for land based products)
Value of ecosystem services
Externalities: energy consumption, pollution
Take into account land footprint
without decreasing our natural capital,
NC accounting
time for recovery,
Compensations schemes
irreversibility, etc.
taking into account the suitability of land for different functions
Soil quality
Water resources
Habitats & ecosystems
Climatic conditions
Topography
Localisation

12. Possible indicators for land functions / land efficiency
LUC
Resource productivity
(should capture impacts from changes in other functions)
Externalities
(not reflected in another land function)
Provision of land-based products
LCFs: Agriculture internal conversions, Conversion from forested and natural land to agriculture, Forest creation and management, (% managed??), Other LCFs implying agri/forest land
"natural fertility?" (MAES)
€ value added from Ha used for provisioning activities
Impact on global land footprint (+/-)
Energy balance
Regulation of the supply and quality of air, water and minerals
LCF Water bodies creation and management, Other LCFs implying water bodies or wetlands
Water retention index
Impact on WEI+
Floods / droughts risk (€)
Carbon storage (€)
Provision of biotic resources
Protected areas
Green infrastructure…
Biodiv indicators
MAES
Provision of leisure and recreation
Provision of work
Withdrawal of farming,
Jobs linked to use or protection of natural resources
Jobs linked to "artificial" use of land
Impact on regional dynamics (e.g. migrations, GVA)
Provision of housing and infrastructure
Covered under LT indicators
? Linked with land price due to land scarcity?
Energy balance urban and infra system
Provision of abiotic resources
Covered under LT indicator
When abiotic energy production : contribution to GHG/RES goals

13. LUISA - Territorial Modelling approach: from macro-trends to place-based integrated assessments
Grid-based analysis
EU Reference projections
Regionalisation (Nuts 2,3)
The modelling framework is based upon the implementation of a baseline (or ‘reference’) scenario compliant with the socio-economic projections from ECFIN and E-STAT. The regionalisation (or downscaling) of socio-economic variables (such as : employment, population, GDP etc.) allows to derive and construct sub-national scenarios of regional convergence. These scenarios in turn drive the detailed analysis performed at high spatial resolution. The framework is integrated in the LUISA modelling platform, which connects specialised models and databases.
LUISA – Land Use-based Integrated Sustainability Assessment Modelling Platform
JRC -

14. How does LUISA work?
Scenario Setting
(socio-economic)
Land requirements from different sectors are estimated given exogenous macro-drivers for resources, commodities and energy .
ECONOMY
DEMOGRAPHY
AGRICULTURE
ENERGY
Demand Module
Demand settings
Implementation of
Policy options
Projected Land Use Change
Biophysical suitability, neighborhood, policy and regulatory constraints and targets, conversion costs, …
Dynamic Spatial Allocation
Dynamic Population
Current land use
Projected Population map
Projected Accessibility map
Resolves the spatial allocation of resources and activities at fine pixel scale, taking into consideration competition for land and land suitability.
Accessibility
Nr. of people
Impact analysis
Dynamic Land Functions
Territorial and thematic Indicators
Land-use based indicators:
Land-use/cover maps
Change hotspots
Regional changes
Land use intensity/abandonment
Thematic indicators:
Resources Supply / Demand
Urban/Regional Profiles
Regulatory Ecosystem Services
Sectoral employment & GVA

15. LUISA – Indicators of dynamic land functions

16. THANK YOU