Ecosistemi Europei

Biodiversityv00.20 credits/per_km2

Responsible:Niccolò Calandri

European Ecosystems — EEA Ecosystem Types Map v3.1

Overview

The European Ecosystems layer displays the EEA Ecosystem Types Map (ETM) version 3.1, a comprehensive land classification product covering the European continent at 100 m spatial resolution in the EPSG:3035 (ETRS89-LAEA) coordinate reference system. The reference year is 2012.

The ETM classifies the European landscape into 46 detailed ecosystem type classes organized under 9 MAES (Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services) level-1 categories:

MAES Category	Description	Example Classes
Coastal	Marine and coastal habitats	Beaches, dunes, estuaries
Rivers and Lakes	Freshwater ecosystems	Rivers, lakes, reservoirs
Wetlands	Waterlogged ecosystems	Bogs, fens, marshes
Grasslands	Herbaceous vegetation	Natural grasslands, pastures
Heathland and Shrub	Low woody vegetation	Moors, sclerophyllous scrub
Woodland and Forest	Tree-dominated ecosystems	Broadleaved, coniferous, mixed
Sparsely Vegetated	Minimal vegetation cover	Bare rock, glaciers, burnt areas
Cultivated	Agricultural land	Arable land, permanent crops
Urban	Artificial surfaces	Residential, industrial, transport

The ETM is the official European reference for ecosystem accounting under the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the SEEA-EA (System of Environmental-Economic Accounting — Ecosystem Accounting) framework.

Calculation Methodology

Classification approach:

The ETM v3.1 is produced by the EEA through a multi-source data integration process:

Base layer — Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2012 at 100 m (rasterized from 25 ha MMU)
Refinement layers — Copernicus High Resolution Layers (HRLs): Tree Cover Density, Imperviousness, Grassland, Wetlands, Water and Wetness
Thematic overlays — Natura 2000 habitats, national ecosystem maps, elevation-based delineations
Cross-walking — CLC classes are mapped to MAES ecosystem types using expert-defined correspondence tables

Output characteristics:

100 m pixel resolution
46 level-2 classes nested within 9 level-1 MAES categories
Coverage: EU-27 + EEA-39 countries
Single-year snapshot (2012)

Data Sources

Code	Name	Provider	Type	Coverage	Resolution	Reference Year
EEA ETM v3.1	Ecosystem Types Map v3.1	European Environment Agency	Raster	Europe (EEA-39)	100 m	2012

Documentation: EEA Ecosystem Types Map

Technical Notes

The ETM is available only for European territories; non-European sites will have no data
The reference year is 2012; land cover changes since then are not reflected
The 100 m resolution is sufficient for regional and landscape-level analysis but may miss fine-scale ecosystem patches
The MAES classification framework enables consistent ecosystem accounting across EU member states
The ETM does not distinguish between natural and managed ecosystems within the same class (e.g., natural vs. planted forests)

References

Maes, J., Teller, A., Erhard, M. et al. (2013). "Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services: An analytical framework for ecosystem assessments under Action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020". Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
EEA (2020). "Ecosystem Types of Europe — Version 3.1". European Environment Agency Data and Maps.
European Commission (2020). "EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030". COM(2020) 380 final.

Data Sources & References

Sources

EUR_EEAXX_19

Methodology

La mappa European Ecosystems utilizza l'EEA Ecosystem Types Map (ETM) v3.1, prodotta dall'Agenzia Europea per l'Ambiente, con risoluzione di 100 metri. La copertura geografica è limitata all'Europa (sistema di riferimento ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe, EPSG:3035). L'anno di riferimento dei dati è il 2012. Il dataset classifica il territorio secondo il sistema MAES (Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services), sviluppato per supportare la Strategia europea sulla biodiversità 2030, la valutazione dei servizi ecosistemici, il Natural Capital Accounting e il Green Deal europeo. La classificazione comprende 46 classi organizzate in 9 categorie di livello 1: B - Coastal ecosystems (7 classi), C - Rivers and lakes (2 classi), D - Wetlands (6 classi), E - Grasslands (7 classi), F - Heathland and shrub (9 classi), G - Woodland and forest (5 classi), H - Sparsely vegetated (6 classi), I - Cultivated areas (1 classe), J - Urban (6 classi). Il dato viene scaricato come Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF da AWS S3 con windowed reading, ritagliato sull'area di interesse, riproiettato nel sistema di riferimento richiesto (tipicamente EPSG:3857), e visualizzato con la colormap ufficiale EEA MAES.