Europe's green arteries-A continental dataset of riparian zones

Riparian zones represent ecotones between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are of utmost importance to biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Modelling/mapping of these valuable and fragile areas is needed for improved ecosystem management, based on an accounting of changes and on monitoring of their functioning over time. In Europe, the main legislative driver behind this goal is the European Commission's Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, on the one hand aiming at halting biodiversity loss, on the other hand enhancing ecosystem services by 2020, and restoring them as far as is feasible. A model, based on Earth Observation data, including Digital Elevation Models, hydrological, soil, land cover/land use data, and vegetation indices is employed in a multi-modular and stratified approach, based on fuzzy logic and object based image analysis, to delineate potential, observed and actual riparian zones. The approach is designed in an open modular way, allowing future modifications and repeatability. The results represent a first step of a future monitoring and assessment campaign for European riparian zones and their implications on biodiversity and on ecosystem functions and services. Considering the complexity and the enormous extent of the area, covering 39 European countries, including Turkey, the level of detail is unprecedented. Depending on the accounting modus, 0.95%-1.19% of the study area can be attributed as actual riparian area (considering Strahler's stream orders 3-8, based on the Copernicus EU-Hydro dataset), corresponding to 55,558-69,128 km2. Similarly, depending on the accounting approach, the potential riparian zones cover an area about 3-5 times larger. Land cover/land use in detected riparian areas was mainly of semi-natural characteristics, while the potential riparian areas are predominately covered by agriculture, followed by semi-natural and urban areas. © 2016 by the authors

Assessing effects of input uncertainty in structural landscape classification

This paper presents the result

INSPIRE Directive : Specific requirements to monitor its implementation

status: publishe

Validation of Copernicus High Resolution Layer on Imperviousness degree for 2006, 2009 and 2012

Pan-European High Resolution Layers (HRL) provide information on specific land cover characteristics, and are complementary to land cover / land use mapping such as in the CORINE land cover (CLC) datasets as part of the Land Monitoring Service (land.copernicus.eu) of the Copernicus programme, managed by the EC. The HRLs are produced from 20 m resolution satellite imagery through a combination of automatic processing and interactive rule-based classification. 5 themes have been identified so far, corresponding with the main themes from CLC, i.e. imperviousness, (the level of sealed soil), tree cover density and forest type, permanent grasslands, wetlands and water bodies. Pixels of 20 by 20 m are aggregated into 100 by 100 m grid cells for final products. The imperviousness layer was the first to be produced during 2006-2008 from multi-sensor, bi-temporal and ortho-rectified satellite imagery, the same as used for the CORINE Land Cover 2006 update. The production of IMD2006 covered 38 European countries (32 EEA Member States and 6 West-Balkan countries). Since the 2006 production, a time series of imperviousness has been produced for reference years 2009 and recently 2012 over the whole area covered by the 39 member and cooperating countries of the European Environment Agency (EEA) representing a total of 6 million km². For each year it is available as a raster layer with 20 m resolution. At the time of undertaking this study, the area delivered for the year 2012 was around 90% of the total area and the study is based on this areaJRC.D.5-Food Securit

Europe’s Green Arteries—A Continental Dataset of Riparian Zones

Riparian zones represent ecotones between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are of utmost importance to biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Modelling/mapping of these valuable and fragile areas is needed for improved ecosystem management, based on an accounting of changes and on monitoring of their functioning over time. In Europe, the main legislative driver behind this goal is the European Commission’s Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, on the one hand aiming at halting biodiversity loss, on the other hand enhancing ecosystem services by 2020, and restoring them as far as is feasible. A model, based on Earth Observation data, including Digital Elevation Models, hydrological, soil, land cover/land use data, and vegetation indices is employed in a multi-modular and stratified approach, based on fuzzy logic and object based image analysis, to delineate potential, observed and actual riparian zones. The approach is designed in an open modular way, allowing future modifications and repeatability. The results represent a first step of a future monitoring and assessment campaign for European riparian zones and their implications on biodiversity and on ecosystem functions and services. Considering the complexity and the enormous extent of the area, covering 39 European countries, including Turkey, the level of detail is unprecedented. Depending on the accounting modus, 0.95%–1.19% of the study area can be attributed as actual riparian area (considering Strahler’s stream orders 3–8, based on the Copernicus EU-Hydro dataset), corresponding to 55,558–69,128 km2. Similarly, depending on the accounting approach, the potential riparian zones cover an area about 3–5 times larger. Land cover/land use in detected riparian areas was mainly of semi-natural characteristics, while the potential riparian areas are predominately covered by agriculture, followed by semi-natural and urban areas

Europe's green arteries-A continental dataset of riparian zones

Riparian zones represent ecotones between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are of utmost importance to biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Modelling/mapping of these valuable and fragile areas is needed for improved ecosystem management, based on an accounting of changes and on monitoring of their functioning over time. In Europe, the main legislative driver behind this goal is the European Commission's Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, on the one hand aiming at halting biodiversity loss, on the other hand enhancing ecosystem services by 2020, and restoring them as far as is feasible. A model, based on Earth Observation data, including Digital Elevation Models, hydrological, soil, land cover/land use data, and vegetation indices is employed in a multi-modular and stratified approach, based on fuzzy logic and object based image analysis, to delineate potential, observed and actual riparian zones. The approach is designed in an open modular way, allowing future modifications and repeatability. The results represent a first step of a future monitoring and assessment campaign for European riparian zones and their implications on biodiversity and on ecosystem functions and services. Considering the complexity and the enormous extent of the area, covering 39 European countries, including Turkey, the level of detail is unprecedented. Depending on the accounting modus, 0.95%-1.19% of the study area can be attributed as actual riparian area (considering Strahler's stream orders 3-8, based on the Copernicus EU-Hydro dataset), corresponding to 55,558-69,128 km2. Similarly, depending on the accounting approach, the potential riparian zones cover an area about 3-5 times larger. Land cover/land use in detected riparian areas was mainly of semi-natural characteristics, while the potential riparian areas are predominately covered by agriculture, followed by semi-natural and urban areas. © 2016 by the authors