Dashboard (Tableau)
13 Aug 2020
Monitoring soil moisture shortages is a precondition for managing drought adaptation and resilience of ecosystems, such as foreseen by the EU Nature restoration plan of the EU Biodiversity strategy 2030. This dashboard analyses 20 years (2000-2019) soil moisture content in the EEA39 region. Soil moisture deficits, trends in soil moisture values and the area under pressure are presented by countries and land cover.
Data Visualization
25 Mar 2020
The map shows the density of soil sealing in 2012, based on a 10 km2 reference grid. Green and light orange colors show areas with no or very limited sealing, while red and dark red colors show highly to fully sealed grid cells (mainly urban areas).
The map shows the percentage of the average annual change in soil sealing for each of the rectangular 10 km x 10 km grid cells, over the 2006-2015 period
Indicator Assessment
25 Mar 2020
For the reference year 2015 , 85 861 km 2 of the total area covered by the EEA-39 countries were mapped and categorised as 'sealed surface' in the Copernicus imperviousness product. This corresponds to 1.466 % of the total EEA-39 area.
Between 2006 and 2015, soil sealing (imperviousness) in all EEA-39 countries increased by a total of 3 859 km2 , an annual average increase of 429 km 2 . During this period, the average annual increase in soil sealing relative to country area varied from 0 % to 0.088 %.
In 2015, the percentage of a countries' total area that was sealed also varied greatly, with values ranging from 16.17 % (Malta) to 0.07 % (Iceland). The highest sealing values, as a percentage of country area, occurred in small countries with high population densities, while the lowest sealing values can be found in large countries with low population densities.
The average annual increase in sealing was 460 km 2 between 2006-2009, increasing to 492 km 2 for the 2009-2012 period and slowing to 334 km 2 for the 2012-2015 period. The slow-down in the sealing increase between the two reference periods occurred in 31 out of 39 countries. The same trend is visible for sealing figures normalised by the size of the country (the % of the country newly sealed on average annually for the three periods).
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. Even more problematic are situations where, for 2012-2015, the rate of sealing increase is accelerating, in contrast to the general trend of a slowing rate of increase.
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 temperature 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.
Indicator Assessment
13 Dec 2019
In 2015, on average, there were around 1.5 fragmented landscape elements per km 2 in the European Union [1] , a 3.7 % increase compared with 2009.
Approximately 1.13 million km 2 , around 28 % of the area of the EU [1] , was strongly fragmented i n 2015 , a 0.7 % increase compared with 2009.
There was less of an increase in fragmented landscape elements and in the area of strongly fragmented landscape between 2012 and 2015 than between 2009 and 2012 (1.4 and 0.18 percentage points, respectively).
Arable lands and permanent croplands (around 42 .6 %) and pastures and farmland mosaics (around 40.2 %) were most affected by strong fragmentation pressure in 2015 in the EU. Between 2009 and 2015, however, the largest increase in the area of strongly fragmented landscape was in grasslands/pastures and in farmland mosaics.
Luxembourg (91 %), Belgium (83 %) and Malta (70 %) had the largest proportions of strongly fragmented landscape in 2015 (as a proportion of their country area). The Baltic countries and Finland and Sweden were on average the least fragmented countries in the EU.
Between 2009 and 2015, the area of strongly fragmented landscape increased most in Croatia, as well as in Greece, Hungary and Poland.
[1] Romania is excluded because of the poor coverage of fragmentation geometry data in 2009.
Facebook Live interview on Land and soil in Europe.
We cannot live without healthy land and
soil. It is on land that we produce most
of our food and we build our homes.
For all species — animals and plants
living on land or water — land is vital.
Soil — one of the essential components
of land — is a very complex and often
undervalued element, teeming with life.
Unfortunately, the way we currently use
land and soil in Europe and in the world
is not sustainable. This has significant
impacts on life on land.
Most of the food we eat is produced on land and in soil. What we eat and how we produce it have changed significantly in the last century along with the European landscape and society. The intensification of agriculture has enabled Europe to produce more food and at more affordable prices but at the expense of the environment and traditional farming. It is now time to rethink our relationship with the food we put on our plates and with the land and communities that produce it.
Climate change has a major impact on soil, and changes in land use and soil can either accelerate or slow down climate change. Without healthier soils and a sustainable land and soil management, we cannot tackle the climate crisis, produce enough food and adapt to a changing climate. The answer might lie in preserving and restoring key ecosystems and letting nature capture carbon from the atmosphere.
Soil plays a crucial role in nature’s cycles, including the nutrient cycle, which involves how much soil organic matter — i.e. carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus — is taken up and stored in soil. Organic compounds, such as leaves and root tips, are broken down to simpler compounds by organisms living in soil before they can be used by plants. Some soil bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into mineral nitrogen, which is essential for plant growth. Fertilisers introduce nitrogen and phosphates to induce plant growth but not all amounts are taken up by plants. The excess can enter rivers and lakes and affect life in these water ecosystems.
GIS Map Application
15 Aug 2019
The intensity of land take is calculated as land take in the given period as a percentage of the area of artificial surfaces in 2000. For easier comparability, land take is summarised within NUTS3 regions.
The raster file is the basis of the indicator for assessing landscape fragmentation due to urban and transport expansion. The computation is based on the method of Effective Mesh Density (seff). The Effective Mesh Density (seff) is a measure of landscape fragmentation, i.e. the degree to which movement between different parts of the landscape is interrupted by a Fragmentation Geometry (FG). FGs are defined as the presence of impervious surfaces and traffic infrastructure. The Effective Mesh Density gives the effective number of meshes (or landscape patches) per 1000 km2, in other words, the density of the meshes. The more FGs fragment the landscape, the higher the effective mesh density. The seff values are reported within the 1km sq regular LEAC grid.
The imperviousness products capture the percentage and change of soil sealing. Sealed/Impervious areas are characterized by the substitution of the original (semi-) natural land cover or water surface with an artificial, often impervious cover. These artificial surfaces are usually maintained over long periods of time. The imperviousness HRL captures the spatial distribution of artificially sealed areas, including the level of sealing of the soil per area unit. The level of sealed soil (imperviousness degree 1-100%) is produced using a semi-automated classification, based on calibrated NDVI.
Imperviousness data is available for the reference years 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018, and contains two types of products:
1. Status layers
Imperviousness Density (IMD)
The percentage of sealed area is mapped for each status layer for any of the 5 reference years (e.g. degree of Imperviousness 2012). The status layers are available in 10m spatial resolution (2018), 20m spatial resolution (2006-2015), and as aggregated 100m products.
Impervious Built-up (IBU)
This product shows built-up areas, the part of the sealed surfaces where buildings can be found. Built-up areas are a sub-group of the sealed areas. It refers to areas where above-ground building constructions can be found. In contrast to the Imperviousness characterized by a continuous range of imperviousness measurements, built-up in the HRL 2018 is a binary product, expressed as built-up or non-built-up areas. This product is new for the 2018 mapping campaign and is available in 10 meter resolution, as well as a 100 meter aggregated version called Share of Built-up (SBU)
2. Change layers
Two types of change products are available for each of the 3-year periods between the 5 reference years (2006-2009, 2009-2012, 2012-2015, 2015-2018), and in addition, for the period 2006-2012 (that is in line with the 6-year period between two Corine Land Cover products):
a) A simple layer mapping the percentage of sealing increase or decrease for those pixels that show real sealing change in the period covered. This product is available in 20m and 100m pixel size.
b) A classified change product that maps the most relevant categories of sealing change (unchanged no sealing, new cover, loss of cover, unchanged sealed, increased sealing, decreased sealing). This product is available in 20m pixel size only.
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