As one of the Entrusted Entities implementing the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), the European Environment Agency (EEA) is developing the CLC+ Suite of products.
The services provided by Copernicus include Land Monitoring and Emergency Management, benefit from the strengthened partnership between providers of official geospatial data and EEA.
To simplify access to national datasets across Europe, the EEA and EuroGeographics, which represents Europe’s National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities, are creating, maintaining, and implementing a Framework Licence agreement for official geospatial data.
The partnership is also exploring solutions for providing full, free, and open access to geospatial data for the Copernicus programme, including the geospatial data component of the CLC+ Suite of products, the CLC+ Backbone. In doing so, it is increasing the number of datasets available via the Copernicus Reference Data Access (CORDA) database.
Recently EuroGeographics published four case studies from Albania, Spain, Germany and Iceland, which shows the value of official geospatial information for assessing flood and erosion risk, preventing the impact of extreme weather, and in contributing to the new European baseline for monitoring Land Cover and Land Use.
Challenge
- To better align with increasing requirements for European Land Cover/Land Use monitoring and reporting obligations.
- To ensure accurate results, it is essential to have access to reliable, consistent, national and pan-European data.
Angela Baker, Head of Partnerships and Sustainability, EuroGeographics said, “The Copernicus Services require reliable and accurate in-situ data to produce and validate their products. The new framework extends our agreement enabling the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service to use members’ authoritative data to include the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) and the Copernicus Security Service (CSS).”
“Copernicus Services’ also have access to administrative boundary data through our agreement with Eurostat, as well as pan-European topographic, gazetteer and imagery datasets and services delivered through the Open Maps for Europe interface and the Open Maps For Europe 2 project (OME2).”
Benefits of providing authoritative data for CLMS
- Simplifies access to and licensing of authoritative data from National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities.
- Contributes to the new European baseline for Land Cover/Land Use monitoring for the next decade.
- Contributes to production of tailored products (known as CLC+ Instances) to support key EU policy needs through the full policy cycle, as well as specific needs expressed by stakeholders in the Member States.
- Contributes to a key element for monitoring the European Green Deal.
- Contributes to monitoring, reporting and validation to support implementation of the Regulation on the Inclusion of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and removals from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF).
- Demonstrates value of cooperation between EEA and European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities.
Jose Miguel Rubio Iglesias, responsible for the Copernicus In Situ component EEA said, “To meet end user requirements regarding data content and quality, Copernicus Services need access to open, up-to-date, and harmonized geospatial information across Europe. Data produced by the members of EuroGeographics is therefore key to its success.”
“Typically, geospatial data is relevant for all the different services, but we have identified three key services which require geospatial data: the Copernicus Emergency Service and its rapid mapping, and risk and recovery mapping components; the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service; and the Copernicus Security Service which supports, inter alia, the EU External Action Service.”
Case studies focus
Albania where detailed elevation data provided to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service by the State Authority for Geospatial Information (ASIG), Albania was essential for assessing flood risk and its economic impact in the Drin river basin.
Germany where authoritative digital elevation and land cover data provided by the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG), Germany is being used to better understand, predict and prevent future flooding caused by extreme weather.
Spain where transportation, Land Use and Land Cover data provided to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service by the National Geographic Institute of Spain played a key role in evaluating the impact of the 2022 Ceuta wildfire. It was also used to assess the risk of soil erosion in more than 130 hectares of forest in the Spanish autonomous city which is located on Africa’s north coast.
Iceland where the National Land Survey is contributing to the new European baseline for monitoring Land Cover and Land Use by providing access to geospatial data consisting of land cover and land use data, contour lines and height points, structures, boundaries, transportation, hydrology, coastal line, surface and place names.
“As one of the Entrusted Entities implementing the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), the EEA is developing the CLC+ Suite of products. Authoritative data from NMCAs is also an important input to the CLC+ Backbone (the geospatial component of the CLC+ Suite of products) to complement the production and updating of satellite-data derived land cover data,” added Iglesias.
“By working closely together, we can improve the use of authoritative data and services by Copernicus and ensure National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities are recognized for their essential contributions.”
