Tender for integrating nature and biodiversity and land use data
The European Commission has issued a tender for integrating nature and biodiversity and land use data. The overall objective of this call is to ensure the adequate use of existing land cover and land use data for understanding the effects of nature and biodiversity policy, and to provide (spatial and thematic) data for further investigation of land repartition and quality trends in Europe. Current assessments of the state of biodiversity in Europe only give limited value for policymaking due to data gaps, unavailability, data inconsistencies or improper use of existing data. The envisioned work is divided into several parts including a conclusion and case study. Each part will contribute to the achievement of the following objectives: - examine possibilities of how to bring existing data collections together, - produce a processed database for biodiversity purposes, - include follow-up work by producing an EU analysis with indicators on chosen biodiversity parameters, - make sure that metadata will be available for future data use requests, - feed in the future strategy on data storing and handling within European institutions. In addition to the most used EU-wide data sets, further existing data should be processed and used. One valuable data source is Lucas (land cover/use dataset collected and managed by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union). This needs, as point data, to be further processed in order to be linked with other data on European environment. However, possible information gathered on different scales by LUCAS, either through geo-referenced point data, or derived from the statistics gained from raw Lucas data, such as on landscape diversity, have been used very rarely (due to their format, accessibility, or lacking understanding of usability). Therefore, a central part of the work will be to explore the use of Lucas data and make it fit for biodiversity purposes. Whereas it has limited added value for biodiversity information as standalone data (either point data or statistics), it could be linked in a meaningful way to enhance other data/modelling exercisesFor further information, please contact: Directorate-General for the Environment ENV.SRD.2 - Finance attention: Markets Team BU-5 00/122 1049 Brussels Belgium E-mail: env-tenders@ec.europa.eu To see the full details of the call, please consult: OJ No S152 of 7 August 2010