LUCAS Prospective Study on potential use of LUCAS
EUROSTAT is executing a prospective study on potential use of LUCAS data and methodology and their relation to other relevant EU spatial policies and domains.
One of the main objectives of this study is "to broaden the scope of the survey from the agricultural domain to also include other aspects related to the environment, multi-use, landscape and sustainable development".
The LUCAS (Land Use / Cover Area frame statistical Survey) project was launched in the EU-15 Member States in 2000 by Eurostat following a decision of the European Parliament and the Council. LUCAS aims to design and implement a harmonised multi-purpose statistical information system on basis of an area frame sampling design at the EU-level on land use / land cover. Surveys were realised in 2001 and 2003. Currently the 2006 LUCAS survey is realised, covering 11 EU Member States and gathering Land Use/ Cover data at more than 170.000 in-situ sampled sites.
(see http://forum.europa.eu.int/irc/dsis/landstat/info/data/index.htm )
The study will be performed by a consortium consisting of EFTAS (DE), which will lead the project, LUXSPACE (LU) and SADL -Catholic University of Leuven (BE).
The basic idea behind these objectives is to analyse the potential for enlargement of the usage of the Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey for other EU policy needs, including
The collected data itself (LC / LU, landscape photo archive) and
Moreover the potential of the LUCAS statistical framework, i.e.
Its methodology (nomenclature),
Sampling design (EU-wide systematic grid) and
Data collection method (field survey).
In order to identify and specify as clear as possible the various data needs and requirements of the various DG's at EU level, experts needs to be brought together in order to express their specific requirements within their respective domains and to establish consolidated user requirements for prospective LUCAS use.
Therefore a high level management group has to be established, which represents the potential user group and consists of members of the different DG's of the European Commission and should also include other Commission Services such as the European Environmental Agency or the European Soil Bureau. In order to link European Policy requirements with national and international spatial information requirements, also FAO, OECD and UNECE are will be involved. Planned activities are two one day work shops (in October 2006 and May 2007) in Brussels and interactive questionnaire contributions during the project life time (until June 2006).

Project structure of PROSPELU: