1. Review of the ecosystem condition account
Workshop Developing an EU Ecosystem Accounting System
Focus on ecosystem asset and ecosystem service accounts’
Copenhagen 1-2 Oct 2015
Review of the ecosystem condition account
Focus on biodiversity and landscape structure
Markus Erhard

2. EEA approaches for landscape structure and biodiversity Planetary boundary: ‘biosphere integrity’
Work on landscape structure and biodiversity at the EEA aims at the development of specific indicators:
Biodiversity
Indices of EU species (Article 17 / Art 12 reporting) 
Bird population trends
Landscape structure / biosphere integrity
NLEP (Net Landscape Ecosystem Potential)
Fragmentation
Ecosystem extent and condition
Ecosystem extent and flows
Ecosystem condition and flows

3. SEEA Biodiversity accounts – three tier approach
UNSD 2014

4. Biodiversity: EU species (Art. 17 reporting)
Description
The 1992 EU Habitats Directive requests Member States to undertake surveillance of habitats and species of Community interest (Article 11), i.e. those listed in its Annexes I, II, IV and V. Article 17 requires that Member States prepare reports to be sent to the European Commission every six years on the implementation of the Directive following an agreed format.
From the first period of Art 17 reporting, we have tested using 2 variables:
Prevailing trends
Prevailing prospects
These indicators are built by distributing the species in their favourite habitat using CORINE.
We have now a second reporting period so an account could be tested, with opening and closing situation. The last period of reporting is
Baseline Art 12 (Birds Directive) available  needs to be further explored
 Geo-referencing and data quality is limited and spatial down-scaling increases uncertainty in the current approach (fuzzy logic)

5. Biodiversity: EU species (Art. 17 reporting)
Source: State of nature report, EEA 2015

6. Bird population data European Bird Census Council (EBCC)
Common bird species are important in terms of links with ecosystems and their services
Bird data are numerous in terms of spatial and temporal coverage (most EU countries, annual updates)
They are well studied and a good indicator of changing ecological conditions

7. NLEP – Net Landscape Ecosystem Potential
Description
NLEP is a way to measure and assess ecosystem integrity at European scale on the basis of land cover changes. The signal of land cover changes is enhanced by the probability of presence of areas representing high species/habitats diversity and by the weighting of presence of areas with high density of transportation networks.
NLEP = f (GBLI, NATURILIS, MEFF) where
GBLI : Green Background Landscape Index
NATURILIS : Index for protected areas
MEFF : Index for fragmentation by main roads and railways
GBLI and Naturilis can be calculated for many years
Requires operational fragmentation indicator (work in progress 2016)
 Methodological review needed

8. Landscape Ecological Potential
Corine land cover map (CLC is derived from satellite images)
Green Landscape Index (derived from CLC)
Nature Value (Naturilis, derived from Natura2000 designated areas)
Fragmentation (Effective Mesh Size (MEFF) derived from TeleAtlas Roads and CLC) 
and
Landscape Ecological Potential (LEP) 2000, by 1km² grid cell
LEP 2000 by NUTS 2/3

9. NLEP in the context of SECA

10. Fragmentation
Source: EEA/FOEN 2011

11. European Ecosystem Map: EUNIS Habitat – Land cover – Reference Data
Ecosystem extent
European Ecosystem Map: EUNIS Habitat – Land cover – Reference Data
Source: ETC/SIA 2014

12. Change in ecosystem extent
Source: JRC, 2015

13. Ecosystem condition
Example for assessment of agro ecosystem condition (cropland and grassland)

14. Conclusions and next steps
Biodiversity:
Art17 reporting operational but issues with European coverage and data quality
Bird population data to be explored (EEA - JRC)
Landscape Integrity
nLEP partly operational (Copernicus land services, N2000) but concept to be revised
Fragementation indicator revision 2016
Ecosystem extent
Operational (Copernicus land services) but ecosystem maps to be improved
Ecosystem condition ( planetary boundary ‘biogeochemical flows‘)
Experimental work in progress