ETC DI Report 2026/06 Summary report on potential methodological approach and resource needs for a regular EU ecosystem extent data product

Detailed and reliable data on ecosystem extent and distribution are critical to monitoring the achievement of legal obligations and policy goals in the European Union. This initiative aims to deliver a technical solution for a reliable, recurring data product for mapping ecosystem extent across Europe. Recent legislation, such as the amendment to the Environmental Accounts Regulation and the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR), has further established the need for robust, spatially explicit ecosystem statistics and monitoring. To meet these needs, the report evaluates different technical solutions: the traditional CORINE Land Cover (CLC) workflow and newer Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) datasets. While CLC offers long-term consistency, CLMS provides higher spatial detail and more frequent updates. The report concludes that an integrated approach is necessary, using the CLC workflow concept and logic as the workflow's foundation while incorporating the speed and thematic detail of modern CLMS data. The report also explores concrete examples of similar initiatives to support the deployment of a tailored approach that leverages Earth Observation (EO), artificial intelligence, and machine learning, while bringing human expertise and local knowledge for training and validation, in an incremental and co-creative manner. Key recommendations for this strategy include adopting a tailored, streamlined approach to ecosystem characterisation and mapping, securing stable funding, ensuring a long-term cloud-based processing infrastructure, and developing a pan-European in-situ data strategy to support AI model training and independent validation. Furthermore, the centralised production process is designed to reduce the administrative burden on individual countries by handling the most generic aspects of the technical work. Finally, this modernisation ensures the continuity of long-term data records, thereby preserving a vital geospatial data platform for land-use modelling and environmental indicators.

28 Aug 2026

Emanuele Mancosu (UMA), Wouter Plouvier (UMA), Antonio Sanchez (UMA), Roger Milego (UAB), Jaroslav Dufek (GISAT), Stefan Kleeschulte (s4e), Gergely Maucha (Lechner), Barbara Kosztra (Lechner), Lorenzo Solari (EEA), Pavel Milenov (EEA), Jan-Erik Petersen (EEA)