The EEA briefing ‘Land cover accounts — an approach to geospatial environmental accounting’ describes the use of EEA’s Integrated Data Platform and geospatial data, such as CORINE Land cover data and Copernicus high-resolution datasets, for transparent, repeatable and efficient land accounting.
Land accounting — including harmonised datasets, transparent methodologies and easily interpretable statistics — is needed for land-related policies that aim to address climate, biodiversity or other sustainability challenges. Land accounting can show, for example, how much land has been converted to urban areas and changes in arable land or forests. In many cases, satellite data, such as those provided by Copernicus, can support the monitoring of changes in land use, the EEA briefing notes.
The EEA’s interactive land cover dashboard shows land cover stocks in Europe by country, year of observation and other parameters. The EEA’s approach to environmental accounting uses geospatial data and respects the international standards for measuring the environment and its relationship with the economy, as set out in the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounting — Central Framework.

This interactive data viewer ( open the 3-rd link) provides an easy and comprehensive access to land cover accounts for Europe (EEA39 and EU28) derived from the CORINE land cover data series. Statistics are calculated for every 6 years of the acquisition period, as well as for the entire period (2000-2018). The viewer facilitates the assessment of land cover consumed or created over a specific period and the reason for the observed change (e.g. urban sprawl or arable land loss), which can be analyzed within user defined spatial units such as administrative regions, biogeographical regions or land cover classes.

At a global level, land degradation neutrality is included in target 15.3 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 (SDGs) and land use information underpins several other targets, e.g. SDG target 11.3 on sustainable cities and SDG target 15.1 on conservation, restoration and sustainable use of ecosystems. Moreover, SDG target 15.9 addresses the integration of ecosystem and biodiversity values into accounting, among other things. More recently, the European Strategy for Environmental Accounts 2019-2023 describes priorities and actions for the use of environmental accounts in a harmonised way.