Land use

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Europe is one of the most intensively used continents on the globe, with the highest share of land used for settlement, production systems and infrastructure. Land is a finite resource: how it is used constitutes one of the principal reasons for environmental change, with significant impacts on quality of life and ecosystems, as well as on the management of infrastructure. More

Key facts and messages: Limiting 'land take' is already an important policy target at national or sub-national level. Balancing land-recycling, compact urban development, place-based management and green infrastructure will provide positive effects. more; 'Land take' dominates in Europe, with artificial areas and agricultural intensification, resulting in land degradation, worsened by high fragmentation on 30% of land area. Conflicting demands on land impact significantly on the land's potential... more

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Restoring floodplains and wetlands offer value-for-money solution to river flooding

News 21 Nov 2017

Investing in ‘green infrastructure’ like restoring floodplains or wetlands to bolster flood prevention not only generates more environmental and socio-economic benefits, especially in the long term, but also lowers the amount of financial investment needed to defend against damaging floods. This is the conclusion of a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report published today, which assesses the green options available in building climate resilience in wake of the increased risk posed by river flooding.

Unsustainable land use threatens European landscapes

News 07 Sep 2017

Accelerating rates of construction, changing demographics, technological changes, and climate change are some of the key drivers influencing the use of Europe’s vast landscapes. A European Environment Agency report published today says that the continent’s land use increasingly sees striking changes and conflicts over land demand which will require reconciling place-based management and macro policies to foster responsible land use.

Restoring floodplains and wetlands offer value-for-money solution to river flooding Investing in ‘green infrastructure’ like restoring floodplains or wetlands to bolster flood prevention not only generates more environmental and socio-economic benefits, especially in the long term, but also lowers the amount of financial investment needed to defend against damaging floods. This is the conclusion of a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report published today, which assesses the green options available in building climate resilience in wake of the increased risk posed by river flooding.

Unsustainable land use threatens European landscapes Accelerating rates of construction, changing demographics, technological changes, and climate change are some of the key drivers influencing the use of Europe’s vast landscapes. A European Environment Agency report published today says that the continent’s land use increasingly sees striking changes and conflicts over land demand which will require reconciling place-based management and macro policies to foster responsible land use.

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Europe’s environment: the power of data and knowledge

Article 15 Mar 2018

Europe collects increasingly more data, enhancing our understanding of the environment. Earth observation data obtained through the European Union’s Copernicus programme presents new challenges and opportunities to improve our environmental knowledge. Combining up-to-date Copernicus data with our existing knowledge base, the European Environment Agency (EEA) aims to empower policy makers and citizens across Europe in taking measures to address local, national and global challenges.

Europe’s environment: the power of data and knowledge Europe collects increasingly more data, enhancing our understanding of the environment. Earth observation data obtained through the European Union’s Copernicus programme presents new challenges and opportunities to improve our environmental knowledge. Combining up-to-date Copernicus data with our existing knowledge base, the European Environment Agency (EEA) aims to empower policy makers and citizens across Europe in taking measures to address local, national and global challenges.

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Landscapes in transition — An account of 25 years of land cover change in Europe

Publication 07 Sep 2017

Landscape is one of the most precious assets contributing to Europe's cultural identity. As landscape is determined to a large extent by land use, the study of land use changes, especially through changes in the land cover, provides clues to the drivers of the transitions that landscape is currently going through. New data on land cover change in Europe up to 2012 show that total land cover change increased from the 2000‑2006 period to the 2006‑2012 period.

Land recycling in Europe

Publication 08 Dec 2016

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.

Urban sprawl in Europe - joint EEA-FOEN report

Publication 08 Jun 2016

This report provides a comparable measurement of urban sprawl for 32 European countries at three levels (the country level, the NUTS-2 region level and the 1-km2 cell level) and for two years (2006 and 2009). The analysis is based on the Copernicus system which monitors the Earth and collects data by different sources. This data provides information about a number of thematic areas, including land. Under land a pan-European component delivers information about various areas, including the level of sealed soil (imperviousness), through high resolution layers taken from satellite imagery. The analysis uses new urban sprawl metrics taking into account the way built-up areas are laid out and how they are used. It also looks at the factors which contribute to an increase or decrease in urban sprawl. The results confirm the conclusions of earlier EEA reports namely that in many parts of Europe current levels of urban sprawl have contributed to detrimental ecological, economic and social effects. This gives cause for concern and such effects may increase alongside planned urban development.

The direct and indirect impacts of EU policies on land

Publication 04 May 2016

The 2011 Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe states, in its milestone of actions to address land as a resource, that 'By 2020, EU policies take into account their direct and indirect impact on land use in the EU and globally. This report presents a methodology for the assessment of European Union (EU) policies in terms of their land-related implications in Europe and provides an initial testing of the methodology across key EU policies and two in-depth case studies, which focus on Cohesion Policy spending on transport in Poland and Spain.

Landscapes in transition — An account of 25 years of land cover change in Europe Landscape is one of the most precious assets contributing to Europe's cultural identity. As landscape is determined to a large extent by land use, the study of land use changes, especially through changes in the land cover, provides clues to the drivers of the transitions that landscape is currently going through. New data on land cover change in Europe up to 2012 show that total land cover change increased from the 2000‑2006 period to the 2006‑2012 period.

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.

Urban sprawl in Europe - joint EEA-FOEN report This report provides a comparable measurement of urban sprawl for 32 European countries at three levels (the country level, the NUTS-2 region level and the 1-km2 cell level) and for two years (2006 and 2009). The analysis is based on the Copernicus system which monitors the Earth and collects data by different sources. This data provides information about a number of thematic areas, including land. Under land a pan-European component delivers information about various areas, including the level of sealed soil (imperviousness), through high resolution layers taken from satellite imagery. The analysis uses new urban sprawl metrics taking into account the way built-up areas are laid out and how they are used. It also looks at the factors which contribute to an increase or decrease in urban sprawl. The results confirm the conclusions of earlier EEA reports namely that in many parts of Europe current levels of urban sprawl have contributed to detrimental ecological, economic and social effects. This gives cause for concern and such effects may increase alongside planned urban development.

The direct and indirect impacts of EU policies on land The 2011 Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe states, in its milestone of actions to address land as a resource, that 'By 2020, EU policies take into account their direct and indirect impact on land use in the EU and globally. This report presents a methodology for the assessment of European Union (EU) policies in terms of their land-related implications in Europe and provides an initial testing of the methodology across key EU policies and two in-depth case studies, which focus on Cohesion Policy spending on transport in Poland and Spain.

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Copernicus Land Monitoring Service - High Resolution Layers - Water and Wetness

Data 16 May 2018

The combined Water and Wetness product is a thematic product showing the occurrence of water and wet surfaces over the period from 2009 to 2015. Two products are available: o The main Water and Wetness (WAW) product with defined classes of (1) permanent water, (2) temporary water, (3) permanent wetness and (4) temporary wetness. o The additional expert product: Water & Wetness Probability Index (WWPI) The products show the occurrence of water and indicate the degree of wetness in a physical sense, assessed independently of the actual vegetation cover and are thus not limited to a specific land cover class and their relative frequencies.

Copernicus Land Monitoring Service - High Resolution Layers - Grassland

Data 16 May 2018

The main high resolution grassland product is the Grassland layer, a grassland/non-grassland mask for the EEA39 area. This grassy and non-woody vegetation baseline product includes all kinds of grasslands: managed grassland, semi-natural grassland and natural grassy vegetation. It is a binary status layer mapping grassland and all non-grassland areas in 20m and (aggregated) 100m pixel size. Two additional (expert) products complete the high resolution grassland product: the Ploughing Indicator (PLOUGH) and the Grassland Vegetation Probability Index (GRAVPI). While the PLOUGH concentrates on historic land cover features with the aim to indicate ploughing activities in preceding years, the GRAVPI provides a measure of classification reliability. GRAVPI is a 20m pixel size product, mapping on a range of 1-100 the class probability. PLOUGH is a 20m pixel size additional product, mapping from 1-6 the number of years since the last indication of ploughing.

Percentage of NUTS3 regions covered by high and very high fragmentation pressure classes

Figure 26 Apr 2018

The map shows the percentage of NUTS3 regions covered by high an very high fragmentation pressure classes. Fragmentation pressure classes express the number of meshes per 1000 km2.

Spatial pattern of fragmentation pressures in rural areas in EEA member countries

Figure 26 Apr 2018

Fragmentation pressure from urban and transport infrastructure expansion in rural areas (see map) in the EU Member States. The chart shows the area distribution of fragmentation pressure classes in proportion of each country's rural area.

Fragmentation pressure within and outside of Natura 2000 sites per country

Data Visualization 26 Apr 2018

Fragmentation pressure in EEA member countries

Data Visualization 26 Apr 2018

Landscape fragmentation pressure from urban and transport infrastructure expansion

Indicator Assessment 26 Apr 2018

Large parts of Europe are highly fragmented because of transport infrastructure and urban expansion. The Atlantic and Continental biogeographical regions show by far the highest degree of fragmentation in Europe. Around 50 % of the Atlantic region and 40 % of the Continental region are highly fragmented. The area with the lowest fragmentation covers less than 10 % of these regions. In the Alpine, Macaronesian and Arctic biogeographical regions, less than 3 % of the area is highly fragmented. The Benelux countries are the most fragmented in Europe. In Luxembourg 93 % of the country is highly fragmented, while in Belgium the figure is 80 % and in the Netherlands 67 %. In eastern European countries, in the Mediterranean and in Ireland and Scotland the fragmenting pressure of urban and transport expansion is considerably weaker. Around 35 % of the cultivated areas, almost 30 % of grasslands and around 12 % of forests are under great fragmentation pressure. In contrast, close to 50 % of the area covered by mires, bogs, fens, heathland, scrub and tundra ecosystems are under low pressure by fragmentation. The forest ecosystems in the Alpine region are under the lowest pressure from fragmentation in Europe. All over Europe and in all the biogeographical regions, the fragmentation pressure is lower inside Natura 2000 sites than in their surrounding areas. Although cities and strongly populated areas are generally most fragmented in Europe, 50 % of sparsely populated regions e.g. in France and the Netherlands, are under great fragmentation pressure as well.

Fragmentation pressure of urban and transport infrastructure expansion

GIS Map Application 12 Jan 2018

Classes represent the number of meshes per 1 000 square kilometres. Light colours mean less fragmentation pressure and dark colours mean more fragmentation pressure exerted by urban and transport infrastructure expansion.

Imperviousness and imperviousness change

Indicator Assessment 04 Dec 2017

Between 2009 and 2012, soil sealing (or imperviousness) increased in most EEA-39 countries by a total of 2 051 km 2 . This corresponds to 0.0356 % of the total EEA-39 area or an annual average increase of 683 km 2 . Overall, this rate of increase is lower than that documented in the 2006-2009 products, although this can be put down to a general overestimation of sealing increase in the 2006 and 2009 datasets. In 2012, the percentage of a countries' total area that was sealed also varied greatly, with values ranging from 0.14 % to 16.27 %. The highest sealing values, as a percentage of country area, occurred in small countries with high population densities, while the lowest sealing values could be found in large countries with low population densities. The most problematic situation occurs in countries where there is already a high percentage of sealing and where the annual rate of increase relative to country area is high.

Historical trend in global agricultural demand for industrial nitrogen fertiliser 1910-2008, projections to 2100 based on RCP scenarios; and drivers of the projected changes in demand in 2100

Figure 28 Feb 2015

Urban Atlas for Europe

GIS Map Application 30 Jun 2014

How densely populated is your city? Where are the green areas and transport networks? The European Environment Agency (EEA) now hosts detailed maps and land cover information for the 117 European cities currently included in the new 'Urban Atlas'.