Cover Management factor (C-factor) for the EU

This dataset (GIS map) (2015) represents the Cover Management factor (C-factor), one of the input layers when calculating the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model, which is the most frequently used model for soil erosion risk estimation; for EU28; resolution 100m. The C-factor was estimated for a) arable lands based on crop composition and for b) all other land uses (non-arable) based on the vegetation density and land cover type. The management practices (reduced tillage/no till, plant residues and winter cover crops) were taken into account in estimating C-factor in arable lands.
Cover Management factor (C-factor) for the EU
Resource Type: 
Datasets
Soil Threats Data
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Image icon Cover Management (C-factor) in Europe
Image icon Influence of Tillage practices in C-factor reduction
Image icon Influence of Cover Crops in C-factor reduction
Image icon Influence of Plant Residues in C-factor reduction
Image icon C-factor in arable lands aggregated in NUTS2 level
Publisher: 
European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Year: 
2015
Themes: 
Erosion by water
Erosion by water›Cover Management Factor

Metadata:

Title: Cover Management(C-factor) factor of soil erosion by water at European Scale.
Description: The C-factor (Cover and Management) is presented at 100m resolution. This C-factor was estimated for a) arable lands based on crop composition and for b) all other land uses (non-arable) based on the vegetation density and land cover type. The management practices (reduced tillage/no till, plant residues and winter cover crops) were taken into account in estimating C-factor in arable lands.
Spatial coverage: European Union (28 Countries)
Pixel size: 100 m
Measurement Unit: Dimensionless
Projection: ETRS89 Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Temporal coverage: 2010

C-factor in Europe

Land use and management influence the magnitude of soil loss. Among the different soil erosion risk factors, the cover-management factor (C-factor) is the one that policy makers and farmers can most readily influence in order to help reduce soil loss rates. The present study proposes a methodology for estimating the C-factor in the European Union (EU), using pan-European datasets (such as CORINE Land Cover), biophysical attributes derived from remote sensing, and statistical data on agricultural crops and practices. In arable lands, the C-factor was estimated using crop statistics (% of land per crop) and data on management practices such as conservation tillage, plant residues and winter crop cover. The C-factor in non-arable lands was estimated by weighting the range of literature values found according to fractional vegetation cover, which was estimated based on the remote sensing dataset Fcover. The mean C-factor in the EU is estimated to be 0.1043, with an extremely high variability; forests have the lowest mean C-factor (0.00116), and arable lands and sparsely vegetated areas the highest (0.233 and 0.2651 respectively). Conservation management practices (reduced/no tillage, use of cover crops and plant residues) reduce the C-factor by on average 19.1% in arable lands. The methodology is designed to be a tool for policy makers to assess the effect of future land use and crop rotation scenarios on soil erosion by water. The impact of land use changes (deforestation, arable land expansion) and the effect of policies (such as the Common Agricultural Policy and the push to grow more renewable energy crops) can potentially be quantified with the proposed model. The C-factor data per land use and country can be found in the publication while the C-factor maps (at 100m pixel resolution) are available for download here.

Data

The C-factor dataset is in Raster format. The user can download 2 datasets:

  1. Cover management factor (C-factor) in the European Union at 100m resolution
  2.  A shapefile where the user can map the:
    •  Cover-Management factor (C-factor) in arable lands at regional (NUTS2) level in the European Union
    •  Influence of Tillage practices on C-factor reduction
    •  Influence of plant residues on C-factor reduction
    •  Influence of cover crops on C-factor reduction

Detailed information about the C-factor per country and land use are also available in the open-access publication.
To get access to the data, please compile the Request form; instructions will then follow how to download the datasets. More information about Cover Management in the corresponding section.

Note: An update of the C-factor took place for the year 2016 and the results have been published in the paper An indicator to reflect the mitigating e ect of Common Agricultural Policy on soil erosion. The elaboration of the EU Farm Structure Survey data 2016 and CORINE Land Cover2012 in the GIS-based LANDUM model allowed to update the knowledge about the most recent changes in land use and arable land management. Using the data on tillage, plant residues and cover crops, we updated the Cover-management (C-factor) in EU for 2016. The increase of land under soil conservation practices and the land cover change have contributed to decreasing the mean C-factor by –0.8%. 

References

A complete description of the methodology and the application in Europe is described in the paper:
Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, C., Alewell, C., Lugato, E., Montanarella, L., 2015. Estimating the soil erosion cover-management factor at European scale. Land Use policy journal. 48C, 38-50

Cover Management factor (C-factor) for the EU

 

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For any problem / question / comment on this dataset, please contact ec-esdac@ec.europa.eu

Notification:

  1. The data provided has been prepared for use by internal research activities in the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in the context of developing the new Soil Loss Map of Europe .
  2. The data were developed for research purposes of the JRC (European Commission). The JRC does not accept any liability whatsoever for any error, missing data or omission in the data, or for any loss or damage arising from its use. The JRC agrees to provide the data free of charge but is not bound to justify the content and values contained in the databases.
  3. The permission to use the data specified above is granted on condition that, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are these data passed to third parties. They can be used for any purpose, including commercial gain.
  4. The user agrees to:
       a) Make proper reference to the source of the data when disseminating the results to which this agreement relates;
       b) Participate in the verification of the data (e.g. by noting and reporting any errors or omissions discovered to the JRC).

Reference of source (Citations) :

Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, C., Alewell, C., Lugato, E., Montanarella, L., 2015. Estimating the soil erosion cover-management factor at European scale. Land Use policy journal. 48C, 38-50. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.05.021

Borrelli, P.; Panagos, P. 2020. An indicator to reflect the mitigating eff ect of Common Agricultural Policy on soil erosion. Land Use Policy . 92, 104467.

When making reference to the ESDAC

  • Panagos, P., Van Liedekerke, M., Borrelli, P., Köninger, J., Ballabio, C., Orgiazzi, A., Lugato, E., Liakos, L., Hervas, J., Jones, A.  Montanarella, L. 2022. European Soil Data Centre 2.0: Soil data and knowledge in support of the EU policies. European Journal of Soil Science, 73(6), e13315. DOI: 10.1111/ejss.13315
  • Panagos P., Van Liedekerke M., Jones A., Montanarella L., “European Soil Data Centre: Response to European policy support and public data requirements”; (2012) Land Use Policy, 29 (2), pp. 329-338. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.07.003
  • European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu, European Commission, Joint Research Centre