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European Commission > Joint Research Centre > Institute for Environment and Sustainability > Land Resource Management Unit

Soil Projects > LUCAS

LUCAS: Land Use/Cover Area frame Statistical Survey

Following a decision of the European Parliament, the European Statistical Office (EUROSTAT) in close cooperation with the Directorate General responsible for Agriculture and the technical support of the JRC, is organising regular, harmonised surveys across all Member States to gather information on land cover and land use.

This survey is known as LUCAS (Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey). The name reflects the methodology used to collect the information. Estimates of the area occupied by different land use or land cover types are computed on the basis of observations taken at more than 250,000 sample points throughout the EU rather than mapping the entire area under investigation. By repeating the survey every few years, changes to land use can be identified.

During the 2009 survey, soil samples will be collected from more than 22,000 LUCAS point locations. These samples, weighing around 11 tonnes in total, will be sent to the JRC and stored in the European Soil Archive Facility. The samples will then be analysed to assess key parameters (e.g. texture, organic matter content, pH, heavy metals) in order to assess the state of the soil across Europe.

This is the first time that such a widespread exercise has been attempted. Initial results are expected in 2010.

Poster Poster

find below the distribution of 22.000 points in the 23 Countries:


Country No of Points
AT 4966
BE  1811 
CZ  4673 
DE 21158
DK  2557 
EE  2679 
ES  29913 
FI  19952 
FR  32345 
GR  7819 
HU  5516 
IE  4164 
IT  17857 
LT  3864 
LU  152 
LV  3826 
NL  2462 
PL  18526 
PT  5428 
SE  26666 
SI  1201 
SK  2895 
UK  14510 

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European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Contacts:
Marc Van Liedekerke(tel. +39-0332-785179)
Panos Panagos (tel. +39-0332-785574)