What is LUCAS used for?

The LUCAS in-situ survey provides information on land cover, land use as well as on environmental parameters associated to the single surveyed points. A point and landscape photo archive is also part of the information disseminated.

Data from the LUCAS surveys can contribute to some of the major EU policy areas:

• The integration of environmental concerns into the Common Agricultural Policy:
  Common Agricultural Policy post 2013
• Preventing dangerous climate change:
  European Climate change Programme
• Soil protection:
  Soil Thematic Strategy
• Holding the loss of biodiversity:
  EU Biodiversity strategy to 2020
• The efficient use of resources, which is important to achieve sustainable growth:
  Europe 2020 Strategy - Resource Efficient Europe
• Land monitoring:
  Copernicus

In the following documents selected LUCAS use cases are presented:

• Verification of Copernicus high-resolution layers
• Production and validation of Corine Land Cover
• Common Agricultural Policy Regionalised Impact model (CAPRI)
• Agri-Environmental indicators on soil
• Landscape structure and linear elements
• The new soil strategy
• Population density