Land use

The European inventory of nationally designated protected areas holds information about designated areas and their designation types, which directly or indirectly create protected areas. This is version 20 and covers data reported until May 2022.

Read more

Read more

These excel data files contains the result of a quickscan of literature regarding information on carbon stocks and carbon sequestration rates in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Based on this information, supplemented with expert knowledge, a list has been drawn up in which the EUNIS habitat types are classified based on their total carbon stock and carbon sequestration rate. This list is available as separate excel worksheet for marine and terrestrial ecosystems and also included as annex in the report that documents the project.

Read more

Landscape fragmentation is the physical disintegration of continuous ecosystems into smaller units, which is most often caused by urban or transport network expansion. Breaking structural connections between habitats results in decreased resilience of habitats and a decrease in their ability to provide various ecosystem services and support biodiversity. This dashboard enables the exploration of landscape fragmentation in Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) in Europe for the year 2018.

Read more

Land take and the associated soil sealing causes less resilient ecosystems through landscape fragmentation and habitats destruction, soil sealing, decreased carbon sequestration and impaired flood protection. These processes are one of the major drivers of land degradation. Restoring wetlands, peatlands, coastal ecosystems, forests, grasslands and agricultural soils are essential for avoiding biodiversity decline and for climate change adaptation. This dashboard presents an overview of land take processes in floodplains of Functional Urban Areas in EEA and EU member states for the years 2012-2018. The amount of land take was derived from the Urban Atlas datasets of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service.

Read more

Through its land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities, the EU currently removes a net total of 249 Mt CO 2 e from the atmosphere every year, equivalent to 7% of its annual greenhouse gas emissions. The sector will play a crucial role in helping the EU achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Doing so will require reversing the current decreasing trend of the EU's  carbon sink . According to national projections from EU Member States, current measures in place will not be sufficient to achieve this, with an average removal of 200 Mt CO 2 e per year in 2030. However, implementing the national measures currently at planning stage could increase the current EU carbon sink by 3%.

Read more

Monitoring the pressure from soil moisture deficits can warn of potential impacts on plant development and soil health, supporting the assessment of drought-tolerant, resilient and vulnerable ecosystems. In 2000-2019, soil moisture in the growing season was several times below the long-term average in the EEA member countries plus the United Kingdom. The largest soil moisture deficits occurred in 2003, 2017 and 2019, affecting over 1.45 million km 2 in 2019. Soil moisture content was also low in 2012, 2015 and 2018, contributing to increasingly frequent and intense drought pressure.

Read more

The map shows the long-term impact of water deficit on vegetation productivity, and the area of low vegetation productivity under water deficit impact, aggregated by NUTS3 regions. Negative anomalies are expressed in standard deviation and indicate vegetation productivity conditions that are lower than the long-term average under normal, non-drought conditions.

Read more

The European inventory of nationally designated protected areas holds information about designated areas and their designation types, which directly or indirectly create protected areas. This is version 20 and covers data reported until May 2022.

Read more

Read more

Land take and the sealing of soil with asphalt, concrete or buildings increased in Europe’s urban areas from 2012 to 2018, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) assessment, published today. Increasing land take and soil sealing make Europe’s ecosystems less resilient, with negative impacts on biodiversity and weaker potential for climate change adaptation.

Read more

This report analyses data from the Urban Atlas of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. It focuses on land use changes (land take, soil sealing) and socio‑economic trends in 662 functional urban areas — cities and their commuting zones — in the EU and the UK.

Read more

These excel data files contains the result of a quickscan of literature regarding information on carbon stocks and carbon sequestration rates in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Based on this information, supplemented with expert knowledge, a list has been drawn up in which the EUNIS habitat types are classified based on their total carbon stock and carbon sequestration rate. This list is available as separate excel worksheet for marine and terrestrial ecosystems and also included as annex in the report that documents the project.

Read more

What is the carbon storage and sequestration potential of Europe’s many land and marine habitats? A first scoping analysis, published today by the European Environment Agency (EEA), found that forests and wetlands can play an important role in storing carbon but doing so should take account of potential impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Read more

Landscape fragmentation is the physical disintegration of continuous ecosystems into smaller units, which is most often caused by urban or transport network expansion. Breaking structural connections between habitats results in decreased resilience of habitats and a decrease in their ability to provide various ecosystem services and support biodiversity. This dashboard enables the exploration of landscape fragmentation in Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) in Europe for the year 2018.

Read more

Land take and the associated soil sealing causes less resilient ecosystems through landscape fragmentation and habitats destruction, soil sealing, decreased carbon sequestration and impaired flood protection. These processes are one of the major drivers of land degradation. Restoring wetlands, peatlands, coastal ecosystems, forests, grasslands and agricultural soils are essential for avoiding biodiversity decline and for climate change adaptation. This dashboard presents an overview of land take processes in floodplains of Functional Urban Areas in EEA and EU member states for the years 2012-2018. The amount of land take was derived from the Urban Atlas datasets of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service.

Read more

Through its land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities, the EU currently removes a net total of 249 Mt CO 2 e from the atmosphere every year, equivalent to 7% of its annual greenhouse gas emissions. The sector will play a crucial role in helping the EU achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Doing so will require reversing the current decreasing trend of the EU's  carbon sink . According to national projections from EU Member States, current measures in place will not be sufficient to achieve this, with an average removal of 200 Mt CO 2 e per year in 2030. However, implementing the national measures currently at planning stage could increase the current EU carbon sink by 3%.

Read more

Monitoring the pressure from soil moisture deficits can warn of potential impacts on plant development and soil health, supporting the assessment of drought-tolerant, resilient and vulnerable ecosystems. In 2000-2019, soil moisture in the growing season was several times below the long-term average in the EEA member countries plus the United Kingdom. The largest soil moisture deficits occurred in 2003, 2017 and 2019, affecting over 1.45 million km 2 in 2019. Soil moisture content was also low in 2012, 2015 and 2018, contributing to increasingly frequent and intense drought pressure.

Read more

The map shows the long-term impact of water deficit on vegetation productivity, and the area of low vegetation productivity under water deficit impact, aggregated by NUTS3 regions. Negative anomalies are expressed in standard deviation and indicate vegetation productivity conditions that are lower than the long-term average under normal, non-drought conditions.

Read more

Land use and land use change are fundamental for sustainable resource use and the delivery of ecosystem services, including the provision of food, nutrient cycling and climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration. Land resources are part of our shared natural capital and must be well managed to maintain a healthy environment and human well-being (EEA, 2019b). As such, only if land use and its impacts are properly addressed is progress towards sustainable development in Europe possible. Land-use related policies require the development of harmonised datasets, transparent methodologies and easily interpretable statistics. Land accounts fit the bill, describing how land resource stocks change over time. This briefing describes the use of the EEA’s Integrated Data Platform and CORINE Land cover data for transparent, repeatable and efficient land accounting.

Read more

What do many vineyards scattered across idyllic landscapes, industrial sites and landfills have in common? The presence of chemicals might be the answer. From heavy metals to organic pollutants and microplastics, the soil in which we grow our food and the land on which we build our homes might be contaminated with different pollutants. Contaminants are widespread and are accumulating in Europe’s land and soils. How can we tackle this problem?

Read more