Objectives

OLF will provide global spatial data on land cover and forest change, addressing international concerns related to the global environmental protection and global change issues, with a particular attention to thematic areas where the EU has established policies.

These key policies are:

Forest management

·        UN Forum on Forest (UNFF)

·        EC Communication COM 1999/554 on “Forest and Development, the EC approach”

·        Forest Law Enforcement, Governance & Trade

International conventions

·        Convention to Combat desertification  (CCD),

·        Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

·        Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Environmental management

·        Council regulation EC722/97 on “environmental measures in developing countries in the context of sustainable development”

·        Commission staff working paper SEC(2001) 609 on “integrating the environment into EC economic and development cooperation”

The emphasis of OLF is set on the development of automated environmental indicators based on input provided by the bio-geophysical parameters core service (CSP). In addition OLF end service is focused on environmental assessment itself, incorporating input from core services, OLF specific products, as well as external data sources and ecological models. The geographic areas covered by OLF are of continental size, namely Africa and Boreal Eurasia, as indicated in the annex of the GMES/EC strategic plan (COM 2001/609)

The RTD & innovation activities are divided into 6 main work packages. Four of them relate to the development of automated environmental indicators based on input provided by the bio-geophysical parameters core service. The two other are focussed on the environmental assessment per se, incorporating input from the four previous modules, as well as external data sources and ecological models. Each of these two modules is focussed on Africa and Boreal Eurasia.

 SHAPE  \* MERGEFORMAT

Considering the continental size of the regions of interest and economic constraints at a later operational stage, it was decided

·        to focus mainly on low resolution satellite data

·        to focus on indicators of possible change rather than on permanent land cover conversion per se

·        to develop automated and standardized procedures to add a “change detection” value to existing products

·        to identify areas with potential for change through convergence of evidence (i. e. combination of individual indicators

See the page “products” for more details