Workshop “Evidence on European Land Use”

Brussels, 24 May 2011

Land Use and Land Use Change in Europe used to be mainly addressed from a thematic perspective. However, land-use characteristics are becoming increasingly multi-functional, crossing not only sectors but also administrative boundaries. This leads to an increasing demand for background information and institutional and administrative structures.

Following this demand the ESPON 2013 Programme started a project on European Land Use Patterns: EU-LUPA. In cooperation with this project a workshop was organized in order to shed some light on the various aspects related to Land Use and Land Cover in Europe and to bring together some important players in this field.

Aim

The aim of the workshop was to share experiences, to transfer knowledge and to contribute to the debate on Land Use in Europe and ways in which its assessment can be approached. This facilitated a pan-European discussion and enabled the EU-LUPA project to present their perspective and progress, and discuss the validity of their results achieved so far.

The morning was divided in two sessions. The first session addressed the challenge of combining statistical and spatial information by looking into data sources and methodologies. Topics that have been addressed during this session are:

• Land Cover in Europe: lessons learned from CORINE land cover and new perspectives
• The grid approach: understanding Land Use patterns
• Urban Land Use: lessons learned from Urban Atlas development
• LUCAS: A multi-purpose European Land Use survey

The second session looked into the various approaches to Land Use by going into past and current relevant experiences. Topics that have been addressed during this session are:

• Visions of Land Use transitions in Europe: the VOLANTE project
• Where does the city start? Urban sprawl and compacity analysis (ESPON project FOCI)
• Understanding Land Use patterns in Europe: ESPON project EU-LUPA

The afternoon started with three parallel working groups, each of them focusing on a specific Land Use issue with regard to the EU-LUPA project. Due to having a carousel structure, the participants had the opportunity to debate each of the following issues addressed:

• Methodologies for an enhanced understanding of Land Use changes in EU: Indicators
• Typifying Land Use patterns: Regional typologies
• Identification of main drivers of Land Use changes in EU for a better definition of policy options

At the end of the workshop a concluding plenary debate discussed the main experiences and advises for the EU-LUPA project.

When and Where

The workshop took place at the European Commissio - DG REGIO, CSM 1 building in Brussels on 24 May 2011.

Audience

The workshop aimed at having a discussion amongst policymakers, practitioners and scientists working in the field of Land Use and territorial cohesion. Around 40 experts from all over Europe attended the workshop.

More information

Please find below the programme of the Workshop and all the presentations given.

For more information, contact the ESPON Coordination Unit at [email protected]

This Workshop is organised within the framework of the ESPON 2013 Capitalisation Strategy
(Actions related to European Seminars and Workshops).