Land recycling

Dashboard (Tableau)

Prod-ID: DAS-113-en

Published 19 Aug 2019

1 min read

Land recycling addresses the reuse of abandoned, vacant or underused urban land for new developments within FUAs (Functional Urban Areas, i.e. urban agglomerations). Land recycling is considered a response to land take within FUAs, i.e. urban development on arable land, permanent crop land or semi-natural areas. It is a key planning instrument for achieving the goal of no net land take by 2050 (EC, 2016).

More information

The land recycling indicator (https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/land-recycling-and-densification/) comprises two concepts of urban development - land recycling and land densification.

1) Land recycling is defined as the reuse of abandoned, vacant or underused land for redevelopment. It includes ‘grey recycling’ and ‘green recycling’. Grey recycling is when ‘grey’ urban objects, such as buildings or transport infrastructures, are built under redevelopment. Green recycling is when ‘green’ urban objects, such as green urban areas or sport facilities, are built.

2) Land densification is defined as the land development that takes place within existing communities, making maximum use of the existing infrastructure instead of building on previously undeveloped land.

The land recycling indicator examines land recycling relative to total land consumption. Total land consumption is understood as all the land use processes occurring on or ending up in developed land, i.e. urban redevelopment, urban and infrastructure sprawl, and any change in previously developed land.

Land recycling includes both the densification and the recycling phenomena. Therefore, land recycling is understood broadly and includes three components: land densification, grey land recycling and green land recycling.

Related content

Based on data

Copernicus Land Monitoring Service - Urban Atlas The European Urban Atlas provides reliable, inter-comparable, high-resolution land use maps for over 300 Large Urban Zones and their surroundings (more than 100.000 inhabitants as defined by the Urban Audit) for the 2006 reference year in EU member states and for over 800 Functional Urban Area (FUA) and their surroundings (more than 50.000 inhabitants) for the 2012 reference year in EEA39. Two additional layers were produced for the 2012 reference year: 1) Street Tree Layer within selected FUAs (depending on availability and suitability of satellite imagery) and 2) Building Heights for core urban areas of selected cities. Change layers were produced in 2012 and only for all FUAs covered both in 2006 and 2012 reference years.

Related publications

Land recycling in Europe Land take, or the change from non-artificial to artificial land cover, reflects on-going and often conflicting claims on land. Some of the land that is 'taken' for urban development is covered with an impervious surface, which severely hampers ecosystem functioning and the related delivery of ecosystem services. However, when land is 'recycled', land that was developed in the past and has become available for redevelopment again is reused. Urban densification, or infilling, can also prevent the consumption of land that may be very valuable for food production or recreation. In this report, the processes of recycling and densification are jointly referred to as 'land recycling in its broad sense'. Land recycling can be considered a response to the on-going pressures we as a society apply to our land resources, particularly in the urban fringe.

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Geographic coverage

Austria , Belgium , Bulgaria , Croatia , Cyprus , Czechia , Denmark , Estonia , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Hungary , Ireland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg , Malta , Netherlands , Poland , Portugal , Romania , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , Sweden , United Kingdom

Temporal coverage

Dynamic

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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/dashboards/land-recycling or scan the QR code.

PDF generated on 15 Sep 2019, 08:40 AM

BISE	Biodiversity Information System for Europe
Climate-ADAPT	Climate Adaptation Platform
Copernicus In Situ	Copernicus in situ component
Copernicus Land	Copernicus land monitoring

European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register	E-PRTR
Information Platform for Chemical Monitoring	IPCHEM
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Fresh Water Information System for Europe	WISE-FreshWater

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