A new generation of European land monitoring data – challenges and opportunities

The Copernicus - The European Earth Observation Programme - comprises satellite-borne earth observation, in-situ data and a services component that combines these in order to provide value added information essential for monitoring the earth's environment.
The Copernicus land monitoring service provides geographical information on land cover/land use and on variables related to vegetation state and the water cycle. It supports applications in a variety of domains, such as spatial planning, forest management, water management and agriculture. Copernicus land monitoring service contains Global, pan-European, Local and In-situ components.
The pan-European component produces 5 high resolution (20 m pixel) data sets describing the main land cover characteristics: artificial surfaces (e.g. roads and paved areas), forest areas, agricultural areas (grasslands), wetlands, and small water bodies. The pan-European component is also updating the Corine Land Cover dataset to the reference year 2012 and provides 2006-2012 change map (100 m raster, 44 land cover/land use classes, areal coverage ca 6 million km2 of 39 countries in Europe).
The local component aims to provide specific and more detailed information that is complementary to the information obtained through the Pan-European component. The local component will also cover the entire Europe but focuses on so-called “hotspots”, i.e. areas that are prone to specific environmental challenges and problems. Typically, it is based on VHR imagery e.g. 2.5 m pixel.
Urban areas are a first and self-explanatory type of hotspot, considering that already 75% of the population lives in an urban environment. This local component is the Urban Atlas, a joint initiative of the European Commission, European Space Agency and the European Environment Agency.
Another local component finalised in 2015 focuses on land cover in areas along river borders, i.e. the riparian zones. The rationale for this local component is provided by the need to monitor biodiversity at European level, amongst other in the framework of improving the “green” and “blue” infrastructures in the Union.
Land cover change in Europe, based on earth observation data has been already reported for the period 1990-2000 and 2000-2006 (EEA, 2005, 2010). A new reporting for 2006-2012 (set of 39 countries) has become available in 2016. This shows the slowing of annual general land turnover and reducing urban sprawl. However, share of arable land and permanent crops is still the predominant source for urban land uptake and its relative contribution has been steadily increasing (48% of land uptake in 2012).
Integrated assessment of land resources puts the land take process in a number of contexts. One is soil protection, where spatial planning and green urban design are more and more considered to reduce detrimental impacts of soil sealing and loss of productive land. Another is degradation of terrestrial ecosystems and their ability to supply ecosystem services, which is under attention of EU Biodiversity policies. Here, land monitoring allows for better understanding of habitat change – one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and an important information source for implementation of existing nature conservation policies.
Forthcoming services of Copernicus land monitoring will have a clear demand from wide range of clients ranging from policy makers to land management practitioners and researchers. Next reference year for a pan-European component update is scheduled for 2018.