Cover Crops across Europe

Disaggregated map of cover crops occurrence for Europe and the United Kingdom. Using a disaggregation model, we combined satellite data (Sentinel-1) with aggregated survey data to generate a high-resolution map (100m) of cover crops for Europe and the United Kingdom for the reference year of 2016.
Cover Crops across Europe
Resource Type: 
Datasets
Soil Threats Data
Registration is requested: 
Yes
Year: 
2023
Themes: 
Erosion by water
Soil Organic Carbon Content
Keywords: 
cover crops

Despite the growing importance given to cover crops as a sustainable agricultural practice, the availability of spatial data about them is scarce. The best information available is regionally aggregated survey data, which, although indicative, hinders the development of spatially accurate studies. Using a disaggregation model, we combined satellite data (Sentinel-1) with aggregated survey data to generate a high-resolution map of cover crops for Europe and the United Kingdom for the reference year of 2016. The map was validated with parcel-level data in France, where overall good results were found, with regional variations.

Title:  Disaggregated map of cover crops occurrence for Europe and the United Kingdom

Description: This dataset includes the median, standard deviation, 5th and 95th percentiles of the predicted cover crop fraction. Such a fraction is assumed to vary between 0% (i.e., no cover crops in the pixel) to 100% (i.e., pixel completely covered by cover crops). The values in the raster files are multiplied by 100 to facilitate compression. For instance, a raster value of 1234 corresponds to a 12.34% cover crops fraction. The dataset aims to replace the practice commonly found in the literature of assigning aggregated values to agricultural pixels by randomly sampling them in space. It can be useful for researchers and practitioners requiring spatially explicit knowledge of cover.

Spatial coverage: EU & UK.
Pixel size: 100 m
Projection: EPSG:3035
Temporal coverage: 2016
 

Reference: Fendrich, A. N., Matthews, F., Van Eynde, E., Carozzi, M., Li, Z., d'Andrimont, R., Lugato, E., Martin, P., Ciais, P., Panagos, P., 2023. From regional to parcel scale: A high-resolution map of cover crops across Europe combining satellite data with statistical surveys. Science of the Total Environment, pp.162300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162300

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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) Ispra in collaboration with the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), INRAE, Paris-Saclay University. This work has been done in the context of the Collaborative Doctoral Partneship between JRC and LSCE and contributes to the objectives of the  EU Soil Observatory addressing the soil erosion in relation to land degradation, climate change and food security.
  2. The data are the result of JRC research activities and are primarily made available for further research. 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.
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    • make proper reference to the source of the data when disseminating the results to which this agreement relates;
    • 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) :

Fendrich, A. N., Matthews, F., Van Eynde, E., Carozzi, M., Li, Z., d'Andrimont, R., Lugato, E., Martin, P., Ciais, P., Panagos, P., 2023. From regional to parcel scale: A high-resolution map of cover crops across Europe combining satellite data with statistical surveys. Science of the Total Environment, pp.162300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162300

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