The High Nature Value farming concept: Copernicus contribution

Transcription

1 The High Nature Value farming concept: Copernicus contribution Next Generation Copernicus Space Component User Requirements Gathering Agriculture and Forestry Applications User Requirements workshop on 30 June 2016, Brussels Andrus Meiner, EEA Elisabeth Schwaiger, ETC/ULS-Umweltbundesamt Annemarie Bastrup-Birk, EEA

2 High Nature Value farming concept Policy support -Monitoring success of CAP Pillar 2 rural development programmes -Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) -Three CMEF HNV indicators (baseline, result, impact) -Reference: maintenance of HNV farming and forestry Quantitative indicators which provide information on changes in the extent of HNV farming and forestry or other quantitative measurements, in relation to a baseline. Qualitative indicators which provide information on changes in condition, such as trends in specific farming and forestry practices that are known to be important for nature values [ ].

3 The three key characteristics of HNV farming Low-intensity farming characteristics: - Livestock/ ha - Nitrogen/ ha - Biocides/ ha HNV High proportion of semi-natural vegetation: - Grass, scrub - Trees - Field margins - Water bodies High diversity of land cover: - Crops-Fallows - Grass, scrub - Features Source: EC DG AGRI, GUIDANCE DOCUMENT The Application of the High Nature Value Impact Indicator

4 HNV farming estimating the extent Objective: provide an estimate of the extent of HNV farming (in hectares) The common approach to the identification of HNV farming developed under the IRENA operation (EEA, 2005; Paracchini et al., 2008).

5 HNV farmland a workflow According to Paracchini et al. (2008) the basic mapping steps are: 1. selection of relevant CORINE land cover classes in the different environmental zones in Europe per country 2. refinement of the draft land cover map on the basis of additional expert rules (e.g. relating to altitude, soil quality) and country specific information 3. addition of the biodiversity data layers with European coverage 4. addition of national biodiversity data sets 5. up-scaling to 1*1 km 2 INSPIRE grid

6 HNV farmland update approach Update of the HNV farmland indicator based on land cover and biodiversity data Corine Land cover 2006 data Selection of land cover classes Expert rules and country-specific information (e.g. altitude, soil quality) Biodiversity data - data layers with European coverage Natura 2000 or CDDA Important Bird Areas Prime Butterfly Areas National biodiversity data sets

7 HNV farmland results based on 2006 data Initial resolution 100m

8 HNV farmland change layer OBJECTIVE: Assessment of HNV farmland changes between 2000 and 2006 based on HNV 2006 stock layers and HNV farmland changes derived from CORINE Land Cover changes the change between HNV 2000 and HNV 2006 is calculated only on land cover changes occurring in this time frame.

9 HNV farmland changes Lense: at least 1 change in 25 sq km cells (consumption & formation)

10 Development of High Nature Value Forest Area for Europe

11 HNV forest land approach Pan-European approach based on available data at European level Based on Copernicus products: Corine Land Cover and High Resolution Layer Forest Multi-criteria approach: naturalness, intensity of forest management and connectivity Validation based on country studies on old growth forests

12 HNV forest land naturalness Naturalness of tree assemblages composition expresses the relationship between the real distribution of forest types and their potential habitat: Forest areas coherent in forest types with their potential habitat suitability are expected closer to natural conditions, meaning higher HNV likelihood value. Potential: benchmark values of naturalness indicators Current: values of naturalness indicators Forest patch is classified according to continuous naturalness gradient (0-1) Forest patch Naturalness Assessment by multi-variable analysis Forest patch Source: EEA,2014

13 HNV forest results for 2012 Likelyhood of HNV forest area Source: EEA 2015

14 Operational conclusions -HNV farming concept combines land use, farming and biodiversity data; HNV forest concept is assessment of naturalness (current vs potential). -HNV area mapping shows the likelihood of HNV farmland and forest and identifies the HNV-related biodiversity hotspots. -Copernicus land monitoring products are already and increasingly used, improvement of HNV mapping methods depend on continuation and will benefit from new Copernicus land services that allow assessment of biodiversity status and farming intensity (ecosystem condition). -HNV area estimates allow for change monitoring that is essential for policy development. -HNV area mapping results (100m) provide reasonable approximation for CMEF indicators for e.g. monitoring CAP rural development programmes.

15 HNV farmland in Europe work in progress

16 HNV forest land future steps HNV forest area based on harmonised country data e.g. derived from national forest inventories (aggregating and up-scaling to European level) e.g. -tree species composition, -deadwood, -structural diversity, -forest management regimes

17 Thank you! 17