Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 15 on protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of land which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the European Green Deal.

SDG 15 seeks to protect, restore and promote the conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial, inland-water and mountain ecosystems. This includes efforts to sustainably manage forests and halt deforestation, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, halt biodiversity loss and protect threatened species.

The Soil Strategy for 2030 has set the goal of no net land take by 2050.

This indicator shows the area impacted by drought by monitoring negative anomalies in vegetation productivity in areas with a severe soil moisture deficit during the growing season (more than one standard deviation from the long-term average - observed through remote sensing data at 500×500 meters resolution of the Copernicus EMS European Drought Observatory of the European Commission Joint Research Centre. The indicator covers only agricultural droughts with soil moisture deficits causing reduced vegetation productivity due to insufficient precipitation, as opposed to hydrological droughts, which occur when low water supplies become apparent in streams, reservoirs, and groundwater levels, usually after many months of meteorological drought.

km² area affected

% of total area

Calendar year

The indicator is produced according to the quality standards of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service products. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source dataset and this validation report (see link to INSPIRE metadata or the Imperviousness High Resolution Layer). 

European Environment Agency (EEA)

Data source: Copernicus land monitoring services

Data provider: European Environment Agency (EEA)

Every year

Indicator is updated annually.

> T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Türkiye and Kosovo (under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244/99).

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States and the other presented countries.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological breaks is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

see table sdg_15_42

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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