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.
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.
Dashboard (Tableau)
26 Sep 2019
This interactive data viewer provides land surface sealing status and change in Europe (EEA39 and EU28) for every 3 years between 2006 and 2015, measured by the high resolution Copernicus imperviousness datasets. The viewer facilitates the assessment of soil sealing over a specific period, which can be analyzed within user defined spatial units such as administrative regions, biogeographical regions or land cover classes.
Dashboard (Tableau)
10 Sep 2019
This interactive data viewer provides a set of dashboards giving an overview of the land take and net land take processes for Europe (EEA39 and EU28) derived from the CORINE land cover data series. Statistics are derived for every 6 years of the acquisition period, as well as for the entire period (2000-2018). The viewer facilitates the assessment of land take over a specific period as well as the land use drivers of the observed changes, which can be analyzed within user defined spatial units such as administrative regions, biogeographical regions or land cover classes.
GIS Map Application
15 Aug 2019
The intensity of land take is calculated as land take in the given period in % of artificial surfaces in the year 2000. For easier comparability land take is summarized 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.
Indicator Assessment
27 Jul 2018
Land recycling is still low in all European countries: on average, land recycling accounted for only 13.5 % of total land consumption in European cities in the 2006-2012 period.
The land use densification process, i.e. when land development makes maximum use of existing infrastructure, accounts for the largest proportion of land recycling (10 % of total land consumption). However, in most countries, land take dominates over densification in total land management with the exception of Finland and France.
Grey recycling, i.e. internal conversions between residential and/or non-residential land cover types, is secondary to densification, ranging from 14 % to less than 1 % of total land consumption. Land take predominates over grey recycling in total land management in all countries.
Green recycling, i.e. the development of green urban areas using previously built-up areas, is an important trend that reverses soil sealing, but it is a marginal process in all countries and, on average, it accounts for only 0.2 % of total land consumption.
The high resolution imperviousness products capture the percentage and change of soil sealing. Built-up 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.
A series of high resolution imperviousness datasets (for the 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015 reference years) with all artificially sealed areas was produced using automatic derivation based on calibrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).
This series of imperviousness layers constitutes the main status layers. They are per-pixel estimates of impermeable cover of soil (soil sealing) and are mapped as the degree of imperviousness (0-100%).
Imperviousness change layers were produced as a difference between the reference years (2006-2009, 2009-2012, 2012-2015 and additionally 2006-2012, to fully match the CORINE Land Cover production cycle) and are presented 1) as degree of imperviousness change (-100% -- +100%), in 20m and 100m pixel size, and 2) a classified (categorical) 20m change product.
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.
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 2009-2012 period
Progress in the management of contaminated sites between 2006 and 2011, expressed per management step and against established targets where relevant
Global scheme of nitrogen cycle, showing major nitrogen reservoirs (atmosphere, soil and living organisms), major processes (nitrification, denitrification, nitrogen fixation, assimilation etc.) and actors (plants, animals, bacteria, human beings).
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