1. Presentation of the Italian system
AGEA: Agency for Agricultural Supplies (Italian Paying Agency)
Presentation of the Italian system
Land Parcel Information System
LPIS 1

2. Italian LPIS brief History
First implementation in Italy of an embryonic LPIS (Not Eligible Areas Cadastre) beginning with 32 provinces only on declared parcels, only for arable land and coupled payments no forage crops
2000 – completion of the NEA cadastre on all the country (on parcel declared in 1999 and 2000)
2001/2007 – LPIS updating on new orthoimages when the province was under control whit RS (5%) and the last aerial image available was older than three years;
2007 – beginning of the new LPIS philosophy, photointerpretation independently from cadastral layer only on the image, on a third of the National territory, but yet only on the declared areas; In a second time the LC layer had cut with the cadastre and every parcel obtain his MEA.
2008/2009 – completion of the first turn on all the National area – extension to all the territory independently from farmer declarations.

3. First implementation of GIS 2000-2007
Start of the activities for creating an operational GIS system at national level using:
cadastral maps had to be digitized for 2/3 of the country
coordinates transformation, with the required precision, was performed from cadastral reference system to national UTM
boundaries of all declared parcels were digitized
eligible and not eligible areas were identified within all digitized parcels (from existing not eligible areas registry SNE )
After the GIS implementation the database has been constantly updated through:
updated cadastral information
annual photo-interpretation of all the newly declared parcels
feedbacks from Controls with Remote Sensing activities or On the Spot
new ortho-imagery for one third of the national territory each year 3 3 3

4. The drivers for a change-improvement (2007-2009)
Context of utilization of LPIS changed quite significantly in the last years:
CAP reform in 2005 with issues like total and partial decoupling, entitlement assignment, cross compliance for agro-environment;
other regimes included in SPS: olive oil, nuts, tobacco, fruits, vegetables and vineyards.
Remarks from EU auditors, highlighting some point of weakness of the system as:
lack of homogeneity and incomplete interpretation due to the scarce correspondence of the cadastral parcel to the reality of agricultural assets;
cycle of updating scheduled in not completely rational way.

5. Reference standard used
Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003
Commission Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 –No 1122/2009
Council Regulation (EC) 73/2009
Council Regulation (EC) 146/2010
Joint Research Center – JRC documents
Common technical specifications for the campaign of remote-sensing control of area-based subsidies (annual);
Guidelines for Best Practice and Quality Checking of Ortho Imagery (Issue 3.0);
LPIS Quality Assurance Framework - Executable Test Suite (ETS)
ANNEX I LPIS data quality measures;
ANNEX II Flow of events, related to the inspection of the Reference Parcel;
ANNEX III The Concept of land cover and “eligible hectares”;
Eligibility Profile" Template, version 4.3, October 2010.

6. Project time schedule (first step, mainly provincial)

7. The upgrade project, from 2007
LPIS upgrade (“refresh project”) has been starting in based on the following basic elements:
land cover photo-interpretation not constrained by cadastral boundaries, but realized as a “continuous” layer (physical block approach);
basic land cover legend distinguishing agricultural areas (eligible for payments) and not agricultural areas (not eligible for payments);
higher ortho-imagery quality (color RGB+IR and pixel 50 cm.);
digital orthophotos at scale 1:10.000, working scale between 1:1.000 and 1:3.000;
3 years update cycle, but favoring a regional approach;
Widespread use of ancillary data, from others registries (vineyard, olive tree, nuts, …) preserving the value of historical information;
complete coverage of the entire national territory ( sq.km) not limited to the declared parcels for subsidies application; artificial, natural and forestry were included.

8. Classification A The new classification is based on 3 major groups:
not agricultural land cover (A),
agricultural land cover (B),
agricultural land use (C) from previous registry data A

9. Classification B C

10. Main targets reached in brief
Setting up an up to date, complete and homogeneous set of geo-information for the entire national territory where the classification of agricultural surfaces is not limited from cadastral boundaries but based on a “physical block” approach.
Mapping agricultural surfaces, in coherence with new requirements (i.e. stronger integration of 1 and 2 pillar, cross compliance, …)
Defining a certified baseline layer, through an administrative procedure, involving the farmers and their representative bodies in order to share and validate geographic informations.

11. Further Remarks from EU auditors as drivers for the second cycle procedures tuning
During the first updating cycle (2007/2009) several EU Audits occurred which leads Commission Technical services to several remarks ( DG AGRI /11/2008 and ARES /03/2010) the most relevant were:
delimitation of pasture polygons was considered not always homogenous over the territory; pieces of land with different rates of tare was found aggregated in the same polygon classified with the same code even if they contain locally unequal percentage of not eligible elements.
The minimum mapping unit of non eligible elements during LPIS CAPI (400 sm) was different from the one used during OTS, this fact could became the cause of an incorrect evaluation of not eligible area when LPIS area should be taken in account as baseline for the calculation in the OTS sampled farms

12. Further Remarks from EU auditors as drivers for the second cycle procedures tuning
Such remarks together with further needs coming from a more environmental approach to the GIS and the new “updating” point of view did bring to to the changes in the second cycle technical procedures. The most important were:
The minimum mapping unit of non eligible elements was changed from the previous 400 m2 to 100 m2 in line with the OTS threshold.
The tara LC maximum mapping unit was reduced from the previous m2 to 1000 m2
A more severe rules were implemented about how delimitate natural pastures detailed description of stricter delimitation of pasture polygons was considered not always homogenous over the territory; pieces of land with different rates of tare was found aggregated in the same polygon classified with the same code even if they contain locally unequal percentage of not eligible elements,

13. In-depth classification some codes open to became eligible
codici RE di interesse per una probabile eleggibilità
690
ACQUE
329
Corsi d'acqua, canali e idrovie
330
Laghi e bacini d'acqua di superficie significativa
335
Invasi e piccoli bacini d'acqua
333
vegetazione ripariale
331
Paludi interne
332
Paludi salmastre
334
Saline
336
Lagune costiere
337
Estuari
338
Mari e oceani
770
AREE NON COLTIVABILI
339
Spiagge, dune e sabbie
340
Rocce nude, falesie, rupi, affioramenti, ghiacciai e nevi perenni
341
Aree con vegetazione rada
780
TARE
342
Cespuglieti
343
Vegetazione sclerofilla - Macchia mediterranea
781
fenches and row of trees
344
347
group of trees
782
Aree incolte a vegetazione erbacea spontanea all'interno di aree seminabili

14. Project time schedule (second step regional)

15. Color VHR image – pixel 0,5 m
Il Progetto “refresh” – attraverso le immagini 15 15

16. Refresh layer on VHR images16

17. Overlap VHR – cadastral map17

18. Farm block => contiguous cadastral parcels cultivated by the same farmer18

19. Refresh layer on the Farm block cadastral sheet19

20. Refresh layer cutting out on the farmer block20

21. Farm block 21

22. Data publication on the IACS
The publication in the IACS is done by the integration of new techincal data with the declared information by the farmers in the farm’s register (alphanumeric/graphic info of all It farmers)
by automatic interpolation of land cover layers and farm’s properties, consolidated by the centers for assistance to farmers (CAA) 22 22 22 22

23. Farm Block consistency extracted by farm register and LPIS23

24. Management of eventual re-view instances
COMMUNICATION
SUPPORT
(via call center-CAA)
CERTIFIED
GIS
ACCEPTANCE (tacit consent)
OBJECTIONS / REMARKS BACKOFFICE
(via mail or web application)
MEETING MANAGING
BACKOFFICE
PROCESSING
POSSIBLE FIELD SURVEY
FARM SITAUTION CHECK
Negative outcome
Positive outcome 24 24 24 24