The land take indicator addresses the change in the areas of agricultural, forest and other semi-natural land taken for urban and other artificial land development. Land take includes areas sealed by construction and urban infrastructure, urban green areas, and sport and leisure facilities.
The main drivers of land take are grouped as processes resulting in the extension of:
• housing, services and recreation;
• industrial and commercial sites;
• transport networks and infrastructure;
• mines, quarries and waste dump sites;
• construction sites.
Note: the land take changes relate to the extension of urban areas and may also include parcels that were not sealed (e.g. urban green areas, and sport and leisure facilities). This is, in particular, the case for discontinuous urban fabric, which is considered as a whole. Similarly, monitoring the indicator with satellite images leads to the exclusion of some linear transport infrastructure, which are too narrow to be observed directly.
Methodology for indicator calculation
The indicator is currently calculated from the Urban Atlas dataset of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service for the years 2012 and 2018. Changes from agriculture, forest and semi-natural/natural land, wetlands or water to urban areas are grouped and expressed in km2 of converted area.
Net land take is calculated taking into account the ‘reverse land take process’, i.e. when urban areas are converted to semi-natural land. This can happen as, for example, land cover changes from a mineral extraction site to forest. Net land take is hence the result of land take minus reverse land take, expressed in km2 area.
Methodology for gap filling
Not applicable.
Justification for indicator selection
Land is a finite resource and the way it is used is one of the principal drivers of environmental change and has a significant impact on quality of life and ecosystems. In Europe, the proportion of total land use occupied by production (agriculture, forestry, etc.) is one of the highest on the planet and conflicting land use demands require decisions to be made that involve hard trade-offs. Land use in Europe is driven by a number of factors, such as the increasing demand for living space per person, and the link between economic activity, increased mobility and the growth of transport infrastructure, which usually result in land take. Urbanisation rates vary substantially, with coastal and mountain areas being among the most affected regions in Europe as a result of the increasing demand for recreation and leisure.
Land take occurs mostly in peri-urban areas, where the demand for new infrastructure is high and soil quality, for historical reasons of human settlement, is good. The increase in the area of artificial surfaces often impairs or disrupts valuable ecological functions of soils, such as biomass provision, soil biodiversity and soil carbon pool, or water infiltration potential causing flooding. This has negative impacts on climate change, as it decreases the potential for carbon storage and sequestration, and increases surface run-off during flood . Land occupied by artificial surfaces and dense infrastructure connects human settlements and fragments landscapes. It is also a significant source of water, soil and air pollution. In addition, lower population densities — a result of urban sprawl — require more energy for transport and heating or cooling. The consequences of urban lifestyles, such as air pollution, noise, greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on ecosystem services, are felt within urban areas and in regions far beyond them.
Policy context and targets
Context description
This indicator is a headline indicator for monitoring progress towards the 8th Environment Action Programme (8th EAP). It contributes mainly to monitoring aspects of the 8th EAP Article 2.1. that requires that ‘by 2050 at the latest, people live well, within the planetary boundaries in a well-being economy where nothing is wasted, growth is regenerative, climate neutrality in the Union has been achieved and inequalities have been significantly reduced. A healthy environment underpins the well-being of all people and is an environment in which biodiversity is conserved, ecosystems thrive, and nature is protected and restored, leading to increased resilience to climate change, weather- and climate-related disasters and other environmental risks. The Union sets the pace for ensuring the prosperity of present and future generations globally, guided by intergenerational responsibility’. The European Commission 8th EAP monitoring Communication specifies that this indicator should monitor whether the EU is on track to meet the ‘no land take by 2050’ target.
In May 2020, the European Commission adopted a biodiversity strategy to 2030, related to protecting and restoring nature. The strategy states that the ‘biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis are intrinsically linked. Climate change accelerates the destruction of the natural world through droughts, flooding and wildfires, while the loss and unsustainable use of nature are in turn key drivers of climate change’. Therefore, both the EU biodiversity strategy and the soil strategy for 2030 include the no net land take target by 2050. The soil strategy also addresses land recycling and promotes the circular use of land over greenfield development to limit the acute pressure from soil sealing and land take. The soil strategy further suggests that member states include ‘land take hierarchy’ in their urban greening plans to ‘give priority to reusing and recycling land and to quality urban soils at national, regional and local level, through appropriate regulatory initiatives and by phasing out financial incentives that would go against this hierarchy, such as local fiscal benefits for converting agricultural or natural land into built environment.’ In June 2022, the European Commission adopted the proposal for a nature restoration law that aims to put all natural and seminatural ecosystems on the path to recovery by 2030. The proposed law includes specific targets on green urban spaces and peatlands.
‘No net land take’ is also addressed in the land degradation neutrality (LDN) target of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which aims to maintain the amount and quality of land resources. LDN is promoted by target 15.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which, by 2030, strives to combat desertification and to restore degraded land and soil. Land and soil are also linked to goals that address poverty reduction (SDG 1), health and well-being through reduced pollution (SDG 3), access to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), the environmental impact of urban sprawl (SDG 11) and climate change (SDG 13). The EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 calls for the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems in the EU and the expansion of the use of green infrastructure, e.g. to help overcome land fragmentation.
Policy decisions that shape land use need to consider trade-offs among many sectoral interests, including industry, transport, energy, mining, agriculture and forestry. These trade-offs are eventually implemented through spatial planning and land management in the Member States. Although the subsidiarity principle assigns land and urban planning responsibilities to the national and regional government levels, most EU policies have a direct or indirect effect on urban development. In particular, the effective implementation of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directives has shown that they can improve the consideration of environmental aspects in planning projects, plans and programmes, contribute to more systematic and transparent planning, and improve participation and consultation. The far-reaching consequences of EU and other policies for spatial impacts are, however, only partially perceived and understood. Tackling these challenges needs the completion of a comprehensive knowledge base and better awareness of the complexity of the problems. Initiatives aimed at achieving such an integrated approach, as requested in the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion 2007-2013 imply compliance with the precautionary principle, the efficient use of natural resources and the minimisation of waste and pollution, and must be vigorously pursued and, in particular, implemented.
Targets
While many EU and national policies address land and soil to some extent, legally binding targets, incentives and measures are largely missing at the EU level. Nevertheless, the 8th Environmental Action Program and the soil and biodiversity strategies to 2030 all address and aim at no-net land take by 2030.
The European Commission adopted the proposal for a nature restoration law and intends to adopt the proposal for a soil health law in 2023, including related targets on healthy soil.
Methodology uncertainty
The methodology is straightforward as it is based on calculating observed area changes as long as the definition of land take is followed.
Data set uncertainty
Even though the Urban Atlas dataset represents every 10m2 grid cell in Functional Urban Areas, very large-scale sealed surfaces or land use processes converting semi-natural land to artificial surfaces will be underestimated. These processes are not captured by the dataset and hence the absolute land take value could be higher. There is however no indication on an EU level as to the degree of this underestimation.
Rationale uncertainty
Newly urbanised areas (land uptake) may also comprise non-artificial surfaces (private gardens or public green areas). Thus, they may vary in environmental condition and provision of habitats or ecosystem services.
