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Review of the ecosystem condition account
Focus on biodiversity and landscape structure
Markus [email protected]
Workshop Developing an EU Ecosystem Accounting SystemFocus on ecosystem asset and ecosystem service accounts’
Copenhagen 1-2 Oct 2015
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EEA approaches for landscape structure and biodiversityPlanetary boundary: ‘biosphere integrity’
Work on landscape structure and biodiversity at the EEA aims at the development of specific indicators:
Biodiversity• Indices of EU species (Article 17 / Art 12 reporting)
• Bird population trends
Landscape structure / biosphere integrity• NLEP (Net Landscape Ecosystem Potential)
• Fragmentation
Ecosystem extent and condition• Ecosystem extent and flows
• Ecosystem condition and flows
SEEA Biodiversity accounts – three tier approach
UNSD 2014
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Biodiversity: EU species (Art. 17 reporting)
DescriptionThe 1992 EU Habitats Directive requests Member States to undertake surveillance of habitats and species of Community interest (Article 11), i.e. those listed in its Annexes I, II, IV and V. Article 17 requires that Member States prepare reports to be sent to the European Commission every six years on the implementation of the Directive following an agreed format.
From the first period of Art 17 reporting, we have tested using 2 variables:• Prevailing trends• Prevailing prospects
These indicators are built by distributing the species in their favourite habitat using CORINE.
We have now a second reporting period so an account could be tested, with opening and closing situation. The last period of reporting is 2007-2012.
Baseline Art 12 (Birds Directive) available needs to be further explored
Geo-referencing and data quality is limited and spatial down-scaling increases uncertainty in the current approach (fuzzy logic)
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Biodiversity: EU species (Art. 17 reporting)
Source: State of nature report, EEA 2015
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Bird population dataEuropean Bird Census Council (EBCC)
• Common bird species are important in terms of links with ecosystems and their services
• Bird data are numerous in terms of spatial and temporal coverage (most EU countries, annual updates)
• They are well studied and a good indicator of changing ecological conditions
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NLEP – Net Landscape Ecosystem Potential
Description
NLEP is a way to measure and assess ecosystem integrity at European scale on the basis of land cover changes. The signal of land cover changes is enhanced by the probability of presence of areas representing high species/habitats diversity and by the weighting of presence of areas with high density of transportation networks.
NLEP = f (GBLI, NATURILIS, MEFF) where
• GBLI : Green Background Landscape Index
• NATURILIS : Index for protected areas
• MEFF : Index for fragmentation by main roads and railways
GBLI and Naturilis can be calculated for many years
Requires operational fragmentation indicator (work in progress 2016)
Methodological review needed
Corine land cover map (CLC is derived from satellite images)
Green Landscape Index (derived from CLC)
Nature Value (Naturilis, derived from Natura2000 designated areas)
Fragmentation (Effective Mesh Size (MEFF) derived from TeleAtlas Roads and CLC)
Landscape Ecological Potential (LEP) 2000, by 1km² grid cell
LEP 2000 by NUTS 2/3
Landscape Ecological Potential
and
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NLEP in the context of SECA
Table of Net Landscape Ecosystem Potentiel
Ecosystem Accounting Unit Types
UR LA AM GR FO NA ND MC_GR MC_CR MC_NC
Urb
an/
deve
lope
d ar
eas
Larg
e sc
ale
agric
ultu
re
Agr
icul
ture
mos
aics
Gra
ssla
nd
Fore
st c
over
Oth
er n
atur
al la
nd
cove
r
No
dom
inan
t lan
d co
ver
Seag
rass
Cora
l ree
fs
Oth
er
II. Accessible ecosystem infrastructure potentialLC1 Opening stock of land cover in km2
LEP01 Green background landscape index (GBLI) (average by km2)
LEP02 Landscape high nature conservation value index (average by km2)
LEP03 Landscape fragmentation index (average by km2)
LEP05 Other LEP index (average by km2)LEP_avg Average LEP composite index by km2
NLEP1 Net Landscape Ecosystem Potential = LC1 x LEP_avgLC2 Closing stock of land cover in km2
LEP01 Green background landscape index (GBLI) (average by km2)
LEP02 Landscape high nature conservation value index (average by km2)
LEP03 Landscape fragmentation index (average by km2)
LEP05 Other LEP index (average by km2)LEP_avg Average Landscape Ecosystem Potential composite index by km2
NLEP2 Net Landscape Ecosystem Potential = LC2 x LEP_avg
Tota
l inl
and
& c
oast
al
ecos
yste
ms
Socio-Ecological Landscape Units (SELU) / Dominant Land Cover Type (DLCT)
Marine ecosystem Coastal Units (MCU)
Fragmentation
Landscape fragm entation per 1 km2 grid ( 2009)
Number of meshes per 1 000 km2 (s )
< 0.10
0.10–0.25
0.25–0.50
0.50–1.00
1.00–5.00
eff
5.00–10.00
10.00–25.00
25.00–50.00
50.00–100.00
> 100.00
Mountain ridges
Outside data coverage
Note: Landscape fragmentation was calculated using fragmentation geometry FG-B2.
Source: EEA/FOEN, 2011. Source: EEA/FOEN 2011
Source: ETC/SIA 2014
Ecosystem extentEuropean Ecosystem Map: EUNIS Habitat – Land cover – Reference Data
http://projects.eionet.europa.eu/eea-ecosystem-assessments/library/draft-ecosystem-map-europe
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Change in ecosystem extent
Source: JRC, 2015
Ecosystem condition
Example for assessment of agro ecosystem condition (cropland and grassland)
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Conclusions and next stepsBiodiversity:
• Art17 reporting operational but issues with European coverage and data quality
• Bird population data to be explored (EEA - JRC)
Landscape Integrity
• nLEP partly operational (Copernicus land services, N2000) but concept to be revised
• Fragementation indicator revision 2016
Ecosystem extent
• Operational (Copernicus land services) but ecosystem maps to be improved
Ecosystem condition ( planetary boundary ‘biogeochemical flows‘)• Experimental work in progress