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Indicator Specification
MAIN ADVANTAGES OF THE INDICATOR
Proportional and absolute change in extent and turnover of land cover categories aggregated to relate to MAES ecosystem types in Europe from 2006 to 2012. MAES ecosystem types are: (1) urban; (2) cropland; (3) grassland; (4) woodland and forest; (5) heathland and shrub; (6) sparsely vegetated land; (7) inland wetlands; (8) rivers and lakes; (9) marine inlets and transitional waters; and (10) marine.
This indicator is based on photo-interpretation of satellite imagery and gives a 'wall-to-wall' picture of the changes and dynamics in Europe with respect to ecosystems. Additional indicators can be used to further highlight trends in extent and state of each of the ecosystem types mentioned above using computations from other data sources.
The area change is MAES ecosystem classes is measured in hectares (ha) or square kilometres (km2). The change in MAES ecosystem classes coverage is measured in percentage (%).
This indicator uses photo-interpretation of satellite imagery to give a rough picture of the trend in the observed area and proportion of the major ecosystems in Europe since 1990.
Satellite imagery offers the potential to characterise land cover over very large areas in an efficient and very cost effective way. It is possible to produce land cover maps from satellite imagery based on the spectral properties of each pixel within a scene. By grouping pixels into classes with similar spectral properties and associating these classes with particular land cover types, it is possible to produce maps that delineate land cover. Land cover change is then used to indicate the trends in the extent of major ecosystems such as forests, croplands, wetlands, etc. For this indicator we use data from the Corine land cover (CLC) database (CooRdinate Information on the Environment - Corine).
The CLC data are based on 44 land cover classes that are aggregated into 10 MAES ecosystem types for the purpose of this indicator. Spectral properties allow the CLC project to distinguish between land cover classes. For example, CLC has three classes showing forest land cover: broad-leaved forest, coniferous forest and mixed forest. By aggregating the information of these three land cover classes we have information on the extent of the forest ecosystem within the limitations of the CLC data (see section on main disadvantages). The CLC data however are the best available at present to cover large areas of Europe in a harmonised way.
EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 — headline target and Target 2
MAES ecosystem classes correspond to the following CORINE sub-classes:
(1) Urban: 1.1.1., 1.1.2., 1.2.1., 1.2.2., 1.2.3., 1.2.4., 1.3.1., 1.3.2., 1.3.3., 1.4.1., 1.4.2.,
(2) Cropland: 2.1.1., 2.1.2., 2.1.3., 2.2.1., 2.2.2., 2.2.3., 2.4.1., 2.4.3., 2.4.4.,
(3) Grassland: 2.3.1., 3.2.1.,
(4) Woodland and forest: 3.1.1., 3.1.2., 3.1.3., 3.2.4.,
(5) Heathland and shrub: 3.2.2., 3.2.3.,
(6) Sparsely vegetated land: 3.3.1., 3.3.2., 3.3.3., 3.3.4., 3.3.5.,
(7) Inland wetlands: 4.1.1., 4.1.2.,
(8) Rivers and lakes: 5.1.1., 5.1.2.,
(9) Marine inlets and transitional waters: 4.2.1., 4.2.2., 4.2.3., 5.2.1., 5.2.2.,
(10) Marine: 5.2.3.
The marine ecosystem is currently represented only by the MAES Marine class equivalent to CORINE Land cover class 5.2.3. 'Sea and ocean' that represents the zone seaward of the lowest tide limit and extends to the limit of 12 nautical miles out to sea. It does not include coastal lagoons and estuaries.
No gap filling was used in this indicator.
Datasets have been processed according to the land accounting methodology. Both for facilitating computation and visualising spatial change, land accounts are processed using a grid of 1x1 km. Each cell contains the exact CLC values but spatial aggregations are made of entire grid-cells, which may lead to some very limited marginal uncertainty for the border of a given national or regional land unit.
Differences in CLC change mapping technology (1990-2000 and 2000-2006):
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In CLC1990-2000 changes were mapped by countries usually by intersecting CLC1990 and CLC2000 stock layers. The results were not always cleaned and non-changed parts might have remained in the CLC 1990-2000 changes dataset. On the other hand, isolated changes below 25 ha could not be mapped by this technology. In CLC 2000-2006 and CLC 2006-2012, changes were mapped directly. This way all changes exceeding 5 ha were mapped and non-changed areas were better excluded from CLC-Changes.
Geographical and time coverage at European level: 28 EU Member States are covered by all CLC 2000, 2006 and 2012 results. Land cover changes in Liechtenstein remained below the detection level of Corine Land Cover change methodology. In all EEA countries, the number of years between two CLCs is 6 years.
Representativeness of data on national level: At the national level, time differences between regions may happen in most countries and these are documented in the CLC metadata.
MAIN DISADVANTAGES OF THE INDICATOR
The use of remote sensing data implies that some degree of detail is lost. The Corine land cover data set is based on a minimal unit of 25 hectares and this implies that smaller areas of certain habitat types and linear features may not be adequately detected. Other data sets (e.g. statistical offices reporting for forests, cropland, grassland area) cannot be combined in this indicator calculation because the different definitions used as well as the different frequencies in updating will produce incomparable trends.
Work specified here requires to be completed within 1 year from now.
Work specified here will require more than 1 year (from now) to be completed.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/ecosystem-coverage-3 or scan the QR code.
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