Harmonised LUCAS database classified by crop sequence type

Assessing the benefits of crop diversification – a pillar of the agroecological transition – on a large scale requires a description of current crop sequences as a baseline, which is lacking at the scale of the European Union (EU). This work is based on the Harmonised LUCAS in-situ land cover and use database for field surveys from 2006 to 2018 in the European Union (doi: 10.2905/f85907ae-d123-471f-a44a-8cca993485a2) to fill this gap, We completed this dataset with a crop sequence type information for each point under non-perennial agricultural land cover in 2012, 2015 and 2018.

The dataset lucas_classified.csv includes 31 159 points. Variables "point_id", "nuts0", "nuts2", "th_lat", "th_long", "LC1_2012", "LC1_2015", "LC1_2018" are inherited from the Harmonised LUCAS databse. Variables "cereals", "corn", "rapeseed", "sunflower", "pulses", "rootCrops", "forageLeg", "grassland" correspond to the temporal frequencies of respectively cereals, corn, rapeseed, sunflower, pulses, root crops, forage legumes and grassland within the 2012, 2015 and 2018 crop sequence for each point. Variable "crop_sequence_type" is the crop sequence type assigned to each point, among eight options: cereals, corn and cereals, forage legumes and cereals, pulses and cereals, rapeseed and cereals, root crops and cereals, sunflower and cereals, temporary grasslands.

This dataset could be used to map current dominant crop sequences in the European Union, as illustrated in the map attached, and to assess the benefits of future crop diversification.