Agricultural Areas in Europe

<p style='margin: 1em 0px 1em 6.25pt; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: '><span style='font-size: 10pt; color: black;'>Dynamic access to data on agricultural areas in Europe is derived from the Corine Land Cover 2006 inventory. Data are available as 100 meter pixel raster images at small scales up to 1:800.000 and at higher scales as vectors.</span><span style='font-size: 10pt;'></span></p><p style='margin: 1em 0px 1em 6.25pt; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: '><span style='font-size: 10pt; color: black;'>CORINE Land Cover (CLC) is a geographic land cover/land use database encompassing most of the countries of Europe. In 1985 the Corine<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=programme' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>programme</span></a><span> </span>was initiated in the<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=European%20Union' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>European Union</span></a>. Corine means 'coordination of<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=information' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>information</span></a><span> </span>on the<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=environment' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>environment</span></a>' and it was a prototype<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=project' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>project</span></a><span> </span>working on many different environmental issues. The Corine databases and several of its<a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=programme' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>programme</span></a><span> </span>have been taken over by the<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=EEA' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>EEA</span></a>. One of these is an<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=inventory' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>inventory</span></a><span> </span>of<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=land' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>land</span></a><span> </span>cover in 44 classes organised hierarchically in three levels, and presented as a cartographic<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=Product' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>product</span></a>, at a scale of 1:100 000. The first level (5 classes) corresponds to the main categories of the land cover/land use (artificial areas, agricultural land, forests and semi-natural areas, wetlands, water surfaces). The second level (15 classes) covers physical and physiognomic entities at a higher level of detail (urban zones, forests, lakes, etc), finally level 3 is composed of 44 classes. </span><span style='font-size: 10pt;'></span></p><p style='margin: 1em 0px 1em 6.25pt; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: '><span style='font-size: 10pt; color: black;'>CLC was elaborated based on the visual interpretation of satellite images (SPOT, LANDSAT TM and MSS). Ancillary data (aerial photographs, topographic or vegetation maps, statistics, local knowledge) were used to refine interpretation and the assignment of the territory into the categories of the CORINE Land Cover nomenclature.</span><span style='font-size: 10pt;'></span></p><p style='margin: 1em 0px 1em 6.25pt; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: '><span style='font-size: 10pt; color: black;'>The smallest surfaces mapped (minimum mapping units) correspond to 25 hectares. Linear features less than 100 m in width are not considered. The scale of the output product was fixed at 1:100.000. Thus, the location precision of the CLC database is 100 m.</span><span style='font-size: 10pt;'></span></p><p style='margin: 1em 0px 1em 6.25pt; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: '><span style='font-size: 10pt; color: black;'>This database is operationally available for most areas of<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=Europe' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>Europe</span></a>. Original inventories, based on and interpreted from<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=satellite' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>satellite</span></a><span> </span>imagery as<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=well' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>well</span></a><span> </span>as ancillary<span> </span><a href='http://glossary.eea.europa.eu/terminology/concept_html?term=information' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>information</span></a><span> </span>sources, are stored within national institutions.</span><span style='font-size: 10pt;'></span></p><p style='margin: 1em 0px 1em 6.25pt; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: '><span style='font-size: 10pt; color: black;'>One of the major tasks undertaken in the framework of the Corine programme has been the establishment of a computerised inventory on the land cover. Data on land cover is necessary for the environment policy as well as for other policies such as regional development and agriculture. At the same time it provides one of the basic inputs for the production of more complex information on other themes (soil erosion, pollutant emission into the air by the vegetation, etc.). The objectives of the land cover project are: - to provide those responsible for and interested in the European policy on the environment with quantitative data on land cover, consistent and comparable across Europe.</span><span style='font-size: 10pt;'></span></p><p style='margin: 1em 0px 0.0001pt; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-family: '><span style='font-size: 10pt; color: black;'>Geographic coverage: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia the former Yugoslavian Republic of, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom</span><span style='font-size: 10pt;'><span> </span><span style='color: black;'>Corine Land Cover 2006 seamless vector data - version 16 (04/2012) can be accessed here:<br /><a href='http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/clc-2006-vector-data-version-2' style='color: rgb(33, 117, 155); text-decoration: underline; outline: none !important; font-weight: normal;'><span style='color: blue;'>http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/clc-2006-vector-data-version-2</span></a></span></span></p>