OpenLegislation

Division 3 SERVICE ARCHITECTURE

United Kingdom

Original text. Later amendments are not shown.

The Land service shall be organized in the following two main components: The Global Land Component and the European Land Component.

  1. (1)

    The Global Land component shall include three elements.

    1. (a)

      Systematic Monitoring shall deliver systematically and in near real time bio-geophysical terrestrial variables which are of high priority for ensuring the support to EU policies. The activity shall produce a set of biophysical variables relevant for crop monitoring, crop production forecast, carbon budget, biodiversity, water availability and quality, snow and climate change monitoring at worldwide level, as well as additional biophysical variables relevant for environmental monitoring purposes at the global and continental scale. The Global Land component shall deliver mainly mid-resolution (300 m) products with nevertheless specific products at higher resolution, such as the 100 m resolution dynamic land-cover taking advantage of satellite capacities and Sentinel data availability. The Global Land systematic monitoring activity shall offer a complete Earth coverage compared to the targeted and precise coverage of the Pan-EU and local activities. The quality of the variables shall be constantly monitored and a specific attention shall be paid to the constitution of a consistent time series which are of crucial importance for many monitoring and early warning applications.

    2. (b)

      Hot Spot Monitoring shall provide detailed high and very high resolution land cover and thematic reference information on specific areas of interest for EU outside the European Union territory, particularly in the domain of the sustainable management of natural resources. The activity shall deal with the land cover and land cover change mapping of protected areas and key landscape areas in Africa, and for rural development in Asia. The activity shall support the forest monitoring including Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) process. The list of areas of interest to be monitored and mapped is defined in collaboration with EU Services and EU Delegations following field activities currently carried out in this context and in partnership with relevant programs/institutions. Tailored land cover and land cover change maps will be produced on protected areas and their surroundings, to support biodiversity strategy and development activities, and on areas of interest for REDD+ process.

    3. (c)

      Analysis Ready Data (ARD): ARD will facilitate the uptake of Sentinel 2, supporting user communities such as Forest REDD+ and Agriculture, or environmental assessment with specific variables. The activity shall offer the whole archive of Sentinel 2 level 3 data. The provision of mosaic of Sentinel 1 data can be released on demand.

  2. (2)

    The European Land monitoring shall include two components.

    1. (a)

      Pan-European Land component: shall provide a portfolio of services, ranging from image mosaics, over land cover and land cover change mapping to mapping of complementary thematic land cover characteristics. A first set of tasks of the pan-European component shall address the post-processing of space data, and the production of pan-European mosaics of ortho-rectified images, and intermediate products such as biophysical variables. A second set of tasks shall update and improve the High Resolution Layers (HRLs) on LC characteristics. HRLs shall be updated in a 3-yearly cycle. As a third set of tasks, Corine Land Cover (CLC) time series will be further maintained and updated. CLC shall be a flagship product of the land monitoring service, and shall be updated every six years.

    2. (b)

      The Local Land component shall provide more detailed land cover and land use information complementary to the pan-European component on specific areas of interest, so called ‘hotspots’. The component shall cover and focus on the mapping and change analysis of larger urban areas following the Urban Atlas exercises of 2006 and 2012 (with now a 5 yearly update cycle). The local land component shall map and monitor environmental sensitive areas, updating the Riparian Zones work on a regular base. The Riparian Zones service shall provide crucial information for the monitoring and assessment of ecosystem functioning and biodiversity monitoring, as defined by the MAES framework. Land cover change products shall be also provided in this context. Furthermore similar work shall be done to monitor changes in Natura 2000 sites and potential surrounding threats from a land use perspective. The Coastal Zone monitoring shall address, in cooperation with the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service the specifics of the coastal strip as a hotspot of extreme complexity, gradients, dynamics, pressures and societal risks.