Natura 2000 is the key instrument to protect biodiversity in the European Union. It is an ecological network of protected areas, set up to ensure the survival of Europe's most valuable species and habitats. Natura 2000 is based on the 1979 Birds Directive and the 1992 Habitats Directive. This version covers the reporting in 2020.
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 19 and covers data reported until March 2021.
Data Visualization
22 Mar 2021
Indicator Assessment
22 Mar 2021
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.
Dashboard (Tableau)
01 Mar 2021
Based on common template, EEA has analysed the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service Corine Land cover data for 2000-2018. The set of interactive dashboards provide graphs and maps with concise characterization of land cover changes in the EEA38 member and collaborating countries.
Indicator Assessment
30 Oct 2020
Monitoring vegetation response to water deficit due to droughts is necessary to be able to introduce effective measures to increase the resilience of ecosystems in line with the EU’s nature restoration plan — a key element of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030. Between 2000 and 2016, Europe was affected by severe droughts, causing average yearly vegetation productivity losses covering around 121 000 km 2 . This was particularly notable in 2003, when drought affected most parts of Europe, covering an estimated 330 000 km 2 of forests, non-irrigated arable land and pastures. Drought impact was also relatively severe in 2005 and 2012.
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.
The map shows the loss and gain of forests aggregated in a 10 km grid. Units are in ha/km2.
The following CLC classes were used:
Consumption of transitional woodland (LCF71),
Consumption caused by forest and shrub fires (LCF92),
Consumption caused by forest management (LCF74),
Afforestation (LCF72),
Forest-internal conversion (LCF71, LCF73 and part of LCF74),
Withdrawal of farming with woodland creation (LCF61),
Total formation of forest.
GIS Map Application
03 Mar 2020
Change of vegetation productivity during the years 2000-2016. Vegetation productivity was calculated for each 500m grid cell from a remote sensing derived vegetation index (PPI). The layer shows the changes expressed in % of 2000 calculated from the fitted line of the linear trend model.
The chart shows the vegetation productivity changes (%) over areas with land use change in the period 2000-2018. The values are broken down by major land use change drivers.
The chart shows the effect of frost frequency variations on vegetation productivity, expressed in standard deviation units of vegetation productivity.
Many global policy frameworks, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),directly and indirectly address land and soil. Many of these SGDs cannot be achieved without healthysoils and a sustainable land use. Below is an overview of the SDGs with strong links to soil.
GIS Map Application
13 Dec 2019
For visualisation purposes, the initial 100 m spatial resolution Corine Land Cover dataset was re-sampled to a 10 km2 grid. The observation periods can be visualised by activating the 'layers' icon and selecting the respective periods.
Soil contains significant amounts of carbon and nitrogen, which can be released into the atmosphere depending on how we use the land. Clearing or planting forests, the melting of permafrost can tilt the greenhouse gas emission balance one way or the other. Climate change can also substantially alter what farmers can produce and where.
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