Direct and Indirect Land Use Impacts of the EU Cohesion Policy Assessment - with the Land Use Modelling Platform

A recent report has been produced by the JRC (Joint Research Centre) at Ispra on the assessment of land use impacts of the EU cohesion policy.

The report "Direct and Indirect Land Use Impacts of the EU Cohesion Policy. Assessment with the Land Use Modelling Platform", LUMP.
"The main goal of the study was to identify trade-offs between investments and land use in the EU’s regions, and provide insights on how potentially detrimental land-use impacts could be minimised. To forecast the territorial impacts of the Cohesion Policy, the JRC took a modelling approach that assumed that the land-use effects of future investments will be similar to those observed in the past. Scientists investigated two main scenarios for future land-use change ; one that does not include the Cohesion Policy (the reference scenario), and one that does. These scenarios were simulated using the Land Use Modelling Platform (LUMP), a model developed and run by the JRC which integrates several drivers of land use change (such as the economy and demography) and policies in different thematic domains. " quoted from : JRC News

"The study highlighted that compact urban development and investment in urban green infrastructure have positive effects on the environment and air quality, notably regarding the estimated removal rate of nitrogen dioxide. Compact urban development is more sustainable than dispersed development by offering important savings in terms of infrastructure and transport, and by reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with built-up areas and fuel consumption."
also from : JRC News

EUR 26460 EN
ISBN 978-92-79-35148-8 (pdf)
ISSN 1831-9424 (online)
doi : 10.2788/60631

The map extracted from the report illustrates the capacity of EU countries to provide ecosystem services. Such type of indicators are paving the road to further work on sustainable resource management and coherent strategies of ecological transition.

LUMP has already been used to assess land use impacts of key environmental EU policies, such as the integrated management of coastal zones, the greening of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Waters and the assessment of potential land use impacts of the development of shale gas extraction in Europe.

"Land change models are a key means for understanding how humans are reshaping the Earth’s surface in the past and present, for forecasting future landscape conditions, and for developing policies to manage our use of resources and the environment at scales ranging from an individual parcel of land in a city to vast expanses of forests around the world."
National Research Council (2013)