Published: 29 Mar 2011
Demand for land in Europe is high. Food
and biomass production, housing, infrastructure
and recreation all compete for space, with
impacts on our climate, biodiversity and
ecosystem services. In a recent assessment,
the European Environment Agency (EEA) analyses
land use change in Europe, concluding that
we need an integrated policy approach based
on reliable data to balance sectoral demands
and manage land sustainably.
The land use assessment
published as a part of the EEA's flagship
report The European environment – state
and outlook 2010 (SOER 2010) covers 36 European
countries and a total area of 5.42 million
km2.
It shows that the spread
of urban areas and transport infrastructure
has been accelerating. Artificial land cover
increased by 3.4 % in Europe in the period
2000–2006, by far the largest proportional
increase in all land use categories.
Contrastingly, farmland
is decreasing in terms of area but is often
managed more intensively, partly due to
growing demand for bio-energy crops. Wetlands
and biodiversity-rich natural and semi-natural
areas also continue to decline, although
at a slower rate than observed in the period
11000–2000.
Land use changes in
Europe have significant environmental implications,
including polluting soil and water, and
releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases. Landscape fragmentation and habitat
destruction exert strong pressures on biodiversity.
Decisions about land
use involve trade-offs between diverse sectoral
interests, including industry, transport,
mining, agriculture and forestry. Managing
these trade-offs in a way that maximises
society’s wellbeing — both today and in
the years ahead — requires an integrated
policy approach incorporating environmental
considerations.
Of course, designing
and implementing an integrated policy approach
is impossible without accurate information,
including accessible data on land cover
and analysis of land use changes. The EEA
provides a range of tools for this purpose.
New and updated tools
for land use analysis
Corine Land Cover 2006 is a family of products
based on satellite imagery. Launched in
2010, this land cover inventory includes
44 different land cover classes and presents
changes between the years 2000 and 2006.
On 29 March 2011, the
EEA published 36 land cover country analyses
based on CLC 2006 data. Each of the country
reports provides graphs and maps that characterise
land cover changes concisely. The expansion
of residential areas and construction sites
is the main reason for the increase in urban
land coverage in Europe. A new land take
assessment published in February 2011 shows
that the annual land take in 36 European
countries was 111 788 ha/year in the period
2000–2006.
A raster data set of
built-up and non-built-up areas is available
for assessing soil sealing.
The Urban Atlas provides
comparable land use and land cover data
for more than 300 major cities in Europe.
The city data are also displayed as maps
in a viewer, which will be improved gradually
to include all major EU cities by the end
of 2011.
The main purpose of
land cover accounts is to understand changes
over time. The land accounts data viewer
2000–2006 allows users to display and download
land cover statistics derived from the land
accounts methodology.
