1. Jean-Louis Weber EEA/AIR3 jean-louis.weber@eea.eu.int
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting - Introduction -
Jean-Louis Weber
EEA/AIR3
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

2. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Outline
Integrated assessment of environment and sustainable development:
Platform for Integrated Spatial Assessment of Land, Biodiversity & Water
Environmental Accounts for Integrating Environmental, Economic & Social Data
Land & Ecosystem Accounts (LEAC)
Ecosystem accounts/ Natural capital accounts
Analytical framework
Data issue
Agenda
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

3. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Platform for Integrated Spatial Assessment of Land, Biodiversity & Water, based on Corine Land Cover
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

4. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Environmental Accounts for Integrating Environmental, Economic & Social Data
Depletion,
Degradation &
Formation
of Natural Capital
Production,
Consumption
Income &
Capital
Accounts
Natural
Capital
Accounts
Distribution of
Income &
Consumption Patterns
Use of Free
Goods & Services
Social
Accounting
Matrixes
Ownership of
Natural Assets
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

5. Environmental accounts: 5 key policy questions
Cost of environmental protection  the “burden” issue
Cost for public budgets: financing of protection (incl. administration and research)
Cost for companies: effects on economic competitiveness
Environmental performance of the economy  the “decoupling” issue
Compliance to national emission standards, respect of international conventions
Distances to targets, economic and technological options
Use of scarce resource
Sustainability of consumption patterns
Cost of insufficient environmental protection  the “externalities” issue
Depletion of renewable resources (forest, fisheries, water…)
Degradation of natural assets (forests, fisheries, soil, water, ecosystems…)
Impacts on human health and well being
Costs of remediation (instead of protection…)
Conservation of comparative advantages  the “natural capital” issue
Reserves (ownership, access, operation)
Economic rents on natural resources (depletion…)
Viability of living/cycling natural capital, continuity of ecosystem services
Adaptability to change (global market, climate change, technology)
Assessment of policies  the “effectiveness/efficiency” issue
Efficiency/effectiveness of environmental policies and instruments
Efficiency/effectiveness of environmental sector policies (agriculture, transport…)
Environmental impact assessment of social and economic policies
Incorporation of environmental concerns in the multiple levels of public and private decision-making (participation, awareness, corporate accounting)
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

6. Economic-environmental accounts (seea2003)
National accounts:
Economic natural assets (Sub-soil, forest (managed), agriculture land…)
Environmental protection expenditures
Hybrid accounts:
Consumption of natural resource by sectors/branches
Emissions by sectors/branches (NAMEA…)
Material flows accounts
Natural assets accounts
Forests (incl. native)
Fisheries
Water
Land & ecosystems
Pricing and valuation
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

7. Land & Ecosystem Accounts (LEAC)
Part of the SEEA 2003 (Integrated System of Environmental and Economic Accounting)
Accounts in monetary AND in physical units
Tested in Europe by UNECE, Eurostat and EEA (France, UK, Germany, European coast, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania)
EU-wide implementation of land cover accounts with CLC2000 in 2004
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

8. Land and ecosystem accounts…
…measure stocks as well as change due to gains and losses (flows)
Land cover account, Comunidad de Madrid,
Source: Corine land cover
…are made of
Land Cover Accounts
Land Use Accounts
Ecosystem Accounts
Land COVER accounts are implemented at the EEA from CLC2000
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

9. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Land cover: an image of both land use & ecosystems Land cover change: clues of conflicts and degradation
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

10. Integration in SEEA’s Land & Ecosystem Accounts
Land use
economic &
social
functions
Artificiality
of land
Intensity
of use
Production &
Consumption
Natural Assets
Population
Infrastructures
& Technologies
Soil
Flora & Fauna
Water system
Atmosphere/
Climate
Ecosystem
services
potentials
Integrity, health
& viability
Vulnerability
LAND USE ACCOUNTS
ECOSYSTEM ACCOUNTS
CORE LAND COVER ACCOUNT
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

11. Example of spatial integration N2000 & Agriculture
Portugal-Alentejo
Farmland
abandonment
Spain - Huelva
Spain –
Huelva
Natura 2000 sites
Cultivation of marginal land
Rivers
(p.m. Wetlds, lakes)
Landscape Natural Potential
EEA/Land Accounts Project
Provisional results (Nov. 2004)
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

12. Policy questions (JNO)
Natura 2000 on the map and how is it nestled among landscape features? What does this mean for the ecological functionality of the network and the sustainable conservation and management of the composed habitats?
Natura 2000 is it under pressure? Is the quality of air, water and soil in Natura 2000 sites according to the requirements for the favourable conservation status of the sites? What does Natura 2000 mean for the environmental conditions in the neighbourhood of the sites? Are land-use practises in the neighbourhood of Natura 2000 sites in agreement with the site objectives?
Natura 2000 and infrastructure goes it together? Where is landscape fragmentation hampering achievement of the objectives of Natura 2000? Do mitigation and compensation measures work?
How is biodiversity in agricultural landscapes distributed? How does this coincide with Less Favourable Areas, areas with environmental restrictions and intensification and land abandonment trends? What kind of agri-environmental measures are applied and where? To what extent is high nature value farmland part of Natura 2000 and what is the agricultural practise?
How are forest biodiversity and ecosystem structures distributed over Europe? How does this coincide with the forestry practices? Which forests are part of Natura 2000 and what is the management practise?
How are infrastructure projects co-financed by the EU through the Structural funds distributed over Europe? What is the nature of these plans and what kind of landscape and ecological features are potentially impacted? To what extent do these plans overlap Natura 2000 sites and areas of high nature value?
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

13. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Integration of DPSIR within the ecosystem accounting framework: e.g. Wetlands *
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

14. Ecosystem accounts can be established for:
Individual ecosystems and ecosystem types (statistical classes)
e.g. “salt marshes of West Mediterranean”
“European wetlands“
The coastal lagoon of Thau (FR)
“dry grassland in Continental lowlands”
“large European rivers”
Geographical systems such as “ecozones”, “eco-complexes”, ecological corridors, (small) river basins...
e.g. the Danube Delta …
Management or synthesis units such as designated areas for nature conservation, river basins, programme areas, regions…
e.g. Natura 2000 sites, Natural parks
Ramsar sites
River basin districts…
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

15. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Analytical framework
Stocks of ecosystems accounts: physical units
in first instance, geographical objects from CLC & rivers e-map
additional features/ details (e.g. EUNIS) can be overlaid to the CLC map or integrated in accounts on a statistical basis
additional dimensions: biomass, energy, volume, srkm (rivers…)
Diagnosis of ecosystem health: “distress of ecosystem syndrome”
stability of substrates (connectivity, fragmentation, patchiness…)
nutrient cycling (productivity, nutrient loss and force-feeding…)
species composition
many table for various approaches of the same reality; not all tables need to be filled in; selection according to data
Balance of ecosystem wealth: physical units
calculated in physical terms
Stocks of ecosystems x Health/Distress coefficients
Natural capital accounts: physical & monetary units
marketed and non marketed ecosystem assets
ecosystem goods and services
Stress on ecosystems tables: pressure (s)
(generally) combination of several pressures
mapped at the scale of land use accounts
Linkages to NAMEA, MFA…
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

16. The Ecosystem Distress Syndrome paradigm
David Rapport et al. 1985
“ Given that regional ecosystems are unique and thus may differ considerably in their normal range of primary and secondary productivity, species composition, diversity, and nutrient cycling, and given that each system is exposed to unique combinations of stresses, it might be expected that patterns of response to stresses will be highly variable and unpredictable. Therefore, it is surprising to discover remarkable similarities in the response of ecosystems to stress. Stressed ecosystems are characterized by a “distress syndrome” that is indicated not only by reduced biodiversity and altered primary and secondary productivity but also by increased disease prevalence, reduced efficiency of nutrient cycling, increased dominance of exotic species, and increased dominance by smaller, short-lived opportunistic species.”
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

17. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
EDS simplified model
Ecosystem Distress Syndrome is common to most types of ecosystems and stress conditions
Limited number of symptoms of distress:
Disruption of the pattern of nutrient cycling from “vertical” direction (e.g. between biota and substrate) to “horizontal” direction (e.g. force-feeding by nutrients, losses of organic matter, acceleration of sedimentation…)
Adaptative strategies by opportunistic or introduced species (characterized by high reproductive rates, short life cycles and small size)
Destabilization of substates (Loss of keystone habitats, changes in pattern and connectivity of habitat patches, loss of structural complexity, alteration of hydrologic patterns…)
Application to managed ecosystems
self-sustaining without subsidies, input; economically viable;
able to sustain healthy human communities
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

18. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Natural capital
Production is not only based on man-made capital but as much on human & social capital and natural capital
Human-made capital:
Produced tangible assets such as buildings, machinery, infrastructures, cultivated assets (livestock and plantations)
Produced intangible assets such as computer software, results of research, discoveries
Financial assets
Human & social capital:
individual and collective skills and aptitudes (in relation to population, health, education, culture, participation, social cohesion, institutions…)
Natural capital:
Economic natural assets – land, subsoil assets, non-cultivated biological resources and water resources – over which ownership may be established and transferred
Stocks of natural resources not considered as economic assets – fish stocks, most of rivers, aquifers, lakes, primary forests, natural land, glaciers – over which no ownership is established and transferred
Ecosystems, which deliver ecosystem services that contribute to production and/or directly to human well-being
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

19. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Ecosystem services
Ecosystems provide “services” that:
moderate weather extremes and their impacts
disperse seeds
mitigate drought and floods
protect people from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays
cycle and move nutrients
protect stream and river channels and coastal shores from erosion
detoxify and decompose wastes
control agricultural pests
maintain biodiversity
generate and preserve soils and renew their fertility
contribute to climate stability
purify the air and water
regulate disease carrying organisms
pollinate crops and natural vegetation
(Ecological Society of America, 2000)
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

20. Spatial Integration of Environmental & Socio-Economic Data Collection
Mapping
Socio-Economic
Statistics
Sampling
Individual Sites Monitoring
Earth Observation
Land cover continuous mapping as well as censuses, registers or exhaustive surveys: main features & spatial distribution
Sampling: detailed information representative for an area, a type, a group
Complete investigation of important or rare ecosystems, protected areas, case studies, long term ecological monitoring
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

21. Integrated land cover change and ecosystem monitoring & accounting
T T T T+10 1/
(Pan-European, Global, Vegetation/ Humidity…) 1/
(Corine Land Cover, EU/Countries, Regions, Basins, Ecological landscape)
1/50 or
(Wetlands, Dry-grasland, Forests, Ecological Corridors, Natura2000 sites…
Fauna, Flora,
Physico-Chemical parameters
In situ monitoring
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

22. Integration of land & water, e.g. soil humidity
Soil humidity can be efficiently measured by combining space and in situ monitoring and modelling. The parameter is used for measuring, modelling and assessing:
evapo-transpiration
water stress on ecosystems
water stress on crops
crops yields
seasonal water deficits
extension of irrigation
desertification processes
buffering capacity of soil
risks of fire
risks of flood
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

23. Eurowaternet sampling based on hydrological monitoring and CLC
Integration of land & water assessments: accounts, sampling and modelling
Eurowaternet sampling based on hydrological monitoring and CLC
Water accounts of the quantity and quality of the resource, of polluting emissions to water and economic costs
N – Balance in Kg/ha for Europe (EU 15) calculated at catchments level using the NUTS 3 census database and CLC (JRC with NOPOLU)
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

24. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Ecological status of European rivers considering fish assessment (FAME)
Index classes :
1 – excellent status
2 – good status
3 – moderately perturbed
4 – perturbed
5 – heavily perturbed
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

25. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
We should discuss of…
The framework
Improvements to the land cover database:
Classification issues: EUNIS, CLC level 4/5 ???
Small and linear objects
Use of existing maps
Use of space monitoring (in addition to CLC)
Use of in situ databases
How to start…
What to do next…
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

26. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
Agenda
15 March, 10:00 (Fontana Room – 4th floor)
From land cover accounts to ecosystems accounts: introduction (20mn)
Ecosystem accounting in 2005: wetlands, dry grassland and rivers; objectives and organisation of work (20mn)
Background analysis:
Improvement of spatial characterisation of wetlands (30mn)
Improvement of spatial characterisation of dry-mesic grassland (30mn)
Stratification: Biogeographical regions and landscape types (30mn)
Corridors, habitats and species (30mn)
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Testing ecosystem accounts:
Implementation of pilot ecosystem accounts in 2005: pilot framework & priorities (3 h)
Draft framework and priority tables for wetlands
Draft framework and priority tables for dry and mesic grassland
Draft framework and priority tables for a scoping study on the Danube delta.
16 March, 09:00 (Room 328 – 3rd floor)
Round table on data issues & solutions (1 h)
Reference & background maps: needs and availability
Access to databases: focus on species
Use of statistics
Objectives & ways of cooperation (1 h)
SEBI2010, Bio-IMPS, HNV, PEEN, SENSOR, GMES
Future steps and wrap up (1 h)
End of meeting 13:00
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

27. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting

28. Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting
“Green background pattern”/ “Natural potentials” from CLC/Corilis Version 1
All CLC types with pasture, forest and semi-natural or natural land Neighbourhood: smoothing radius of 10 km
Values from 0 to 100
EEA March 2005
Expert meeting on landscape analysis & ecosystem accounting