Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Developing the European Geographic
Basis
The potential offered by the Common
Agricultural Policy control and reporting
obligations
Eric Willems, EC DG AGRI
Els De Roeck, EC DG JRC
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 1
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) includes a range of agricultural subsidies
that are paid out each year to farmers by the Member States. The payment of
those subsidies is conditioned by the obligation that the National or Regional
Administrations have to set up systems to manage and control all the subsidy
applications from farmers and to report on a yearly basis to the Commission the
results of the agricultural campaign. The exact requirements for those systems
are detailed in a series of EC and Council Regulations.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Agricultural subsidies – geographic component
• Direct payments
– animal premiums
– area-based subsidies
◦ arable & forage crops
• Rural Development Plans
• Permanent crops subsidies
– olive trees
– vineyards
– nuts
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 2
The MARS unit of the JRC provides support to DG AGRI and the Member States
on the technical aspects of the systems used in the Member States for the
management and control of the agricultural subsidies that have a geographic
component. Those are: the direct payments, and more specifically the areabased subsidies for arable and forage crops; part of the subsidies defined in the
Rural Development Plans; and a series of subsidies on permanent crops such as
on olive trees, vineyards and nuts trees.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Area-based direct payments
• farmers: yearly application for subsidy
• MS Administration → integrated system for
administration and control of subsidy applications
“IACS”
• Reg. 3508/92 → Reg. 1782/2003 CAP reform
• Reg. 1593/2000 geographical reference component –
GIS by 2005
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 3
If they want to receive agricultural subsidy, farmers have to lodge an application
each year. This application includes a declaration of agricultural parcels and their
use.
The Member State Administration has to set up an integrated system to manage
all those incoming subsidy applications, to carry out a series of administrative
cross-checks against existing databases, to perform a reliable and objective
control on a representative sample of the applications, to carry out the payments
to the farmers, and finally, to account for the funds spent. This system is called
the “Integrated Administration and Control System” or IACS.
A series of Council and Commission Regulations describes the mechanism of the
subsidies and the requirements of IACS. The initial one is Reg. 3508/92, which
has been amended several times in the course of the past decade and which
was repealed in summer 2003 by the latest reform of the CAP, defined in Reg.
1782/2003. An important regulation with regards to geographic information to be
included in the IACS, is Reg. 1593/2000, which stipulates that the geographic
reference used for the declaration of the agricultural parcels has to be in a GIS
format by 1/1/2005 (previously, this reference was allowed to be analogue – i.e.
on paper only – and not digital).
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Geographic components of IACS
• Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS)
–
–
–
–
–
Geographic reference system for agricultural parcels
Management & control
Farmer declares all his parcels annually
Not necessarily nation-covering
2005: GIS
• Remote sensing data
–
–
–
–
Control
HR, VHR and/or DOP
Scattered; position changing over years
Limited part of territory
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 4
There are two major geographic components contained in the IACS: the Land
Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and the Remote Sensing data used for
control purposes.
The LPIS functions a the geographic reference system that farmers use to
declare their agricultural parcels in their subsidy application. It is important to
note that the farmer has to declare all his agricultural parcels, and not only the
ones for which he requests subsidy. The LPIS is used both at the management
stage and at the control stage in IACS. According the Regulations, it is not
necessarily nation-covering, although in some countries, it is. However, all
agricultural area that is declared by the farmers in their subsidy applications is
included in the LPIS. As stated above, this LPIS has to be in an operational GIS
by beginning of 2005. More details about LPIS are given in following slides.
The Remote Sensing data are mainly used at the control stage. It concerns
mainly high resolution (HR) and very high resolution (VHR) satellite images
and/or digital (air-born) ortho-photos (DOP). The data acquired in the control
context are scattered over the Member States’ territory and the area covered
changes from year to year, covering only a limited part of the territory. For these
reasons, they are of less interest when we are looking at large, fairly
homogenous geographic database at European level.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 5
This slide shows an example of the remote sensing data (multi-temporal HR
images + DOP) used for the purpose of control of agricultural subsidy
applications.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Land Parcel Identification System
• Built to comply with EC Reg
• Common specifications (! large liberty left to MS)
• Owned by MS
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 6
The LPIS is the most interesting geographic component of the IACS in the
context of large geo-databases.
It is built by the Member States on the basis of obligations laid down in the EC
regulations according common specifications regarding quality and up-todateness.
The exact technical specifications of the system vary from one Member State to
another, because of the fairly large liberty left to the Member States on how
exactly to implement the LPIS.
An important issue to mention is that the LPIS is completely owned by the
Member States – it is in no way property of the Commission.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Land Parcel Identification System
• Reference (contents)
– Agricultural parcels
– Blocks of agricultural parcels
– (grouped) Cadastre parcels
• Basis
–
–
–
–
–
Digital ortho-photos/ortho-images
Cadastre
Ordnance survey
Topographic maps
Other ancillary data
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 7
As said, the exact specifications of the LPIS can vary according the Member
States’ choice and needs.
This has led to a variety of reference systems in the EU of the 25 Member States
(current and future). Some countries have built an LPIS containing as entities the
individual agricultural parcels as such. Other have opted to use blocks of
adjacent agricultural parcels (sharing the same physical boundaries). A third type
of reference used are the more property-oriented geodatabases such as the
cadastre and the ordnance survey registers.
The basic data used throughout Europe to build this reference system are: digital
ortho-imagery (airborn or spaceborn), cadastre, ordnance survey, topographic
maps, and any other ancillary data that proved to be useful and usable.
We’ll take a better look into the characteristics and examples of the underlying
geo-databases used.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
topographic map + GIS
Sweden
Orthophotos + GIS
Denmark
Orthophotos + GIS
Finland
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 8
This slide shows some examples of the (digital) LPIS reference systems currently
in use.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Land Parcel Identification System
• Cadastre / Ordnance survey
–
–
–
–
nation-covering
If not digitally available -> digitised
If not sufficient quality -> improved
If not suitable -> workaround
Positive impact of
CAP regulations
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 9
Countries that have implemented LPIS based on cadastre or Ordnance survey
data are e.g. France, Spain, parts of Germany, UK.
The main advantages of such systems is that they are usually known to the
farmers and that they are nation-covering databases.
Under the positive impulse of the CAP regulations on the agricultural subsidies,
the national cadastres have been improved in quality to meet the IACS standards
and where they were not (entirely) digitally available, they were digitised.
In some circumstances it became clear after first attempts to use the cadastre or
ordnance survey data as reference, that the said databases were not suitable for
use as geographic reference for describing agricultural activity; a workaround
was found so as to comply with the EU legislation.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Cadastre PL
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 10
This example shows a region in Poland, where cadastre is used as reference for
the IACS under construction. According the Polish Administration, the cadastre is
well-suitable to serve as LPIS.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Cadastre - DE
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 11
This slide shows an example of a region where the German cadastre does not fit
the agricultural reality. Some cadastre parcels cover several agricultural parcels,
while to describe other agricultural parcels, a whole series of small cadastre
parcels needs to be regrouped. In the central part of the figure, three large
cadastre parcels first need to be regrouped into one big block and then split up
according another pattern, if one wants to describe the underlying agricultural
parcels.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Land Parcel Identification System
• DOP/DOI
–
–
–
–
–
use recommended (not compulsory)
resolution ≤ 1m
RMSE ≤ 2.5m
update cycle max 5 year
B&W
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 12
The use of digital ortho-imagery (DOI) as a basis for the LPIS was recommended
from the start in the IACS regulations – it was not compulsory because some
(mainly larger) Member States objected to that.
The minimum resolution was fixed at 1m, with RMSE of less than 2.5 m and no
need for color DOI was expressed – it was obvious that black and white DOI
provided sufficient information to serve as basis for LPIS. The age of the DOI
was not to exceed 5 years.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
DOP/DOI for LPIS
►Reality
–
–
–
–
–
generalised use (EU25)
resolution often ≤ 0.5m
colour
update cycle 3 year
usually nation wide coverage
Positive impact of
CAP regulations
• DOP/DOI in e.g. DK, UK, IE, BE
– became commercial product
– standard specs for many applications (CAP + other agricultural,
forestry, environment, urban, ..)
– ≈ INSPIRE without regulations
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 13
When we take a look at the LPIS systems that are currently in place in the EU25,
we observe that although back in 1992, the Commission could not make the use
of DOI for LPIS compulsory, its use is generalised throughout the Union.
Moreover, the resolution and accuracy are often better than the originally
proscribed values and the DOI are often in color. The update cycle of the data is
in many countries reduced to 3 years in stead of 5. In most cases, the DOI
coverage produced in the frame of the LPIS construction is nation-covering.
Again we see that the CAP regulations have had a very positive impact on the
production of high-quality up-to-date geographic databases in the EU.
A very interesting point to note is that in several countries that started
immediately in the early ninetees with the use of DOI, the DOI are no longer a
product produced and used for “the sake of IACS”, but that they have become a
standard commercial product. In countries such as UK, DK, IE, BE, several
sectors have found common specifications for these geographic data, which are
used for a wide variety of application sectors. The DOI are produced once and
the various stakeholders buy the right to use them, without having to pay for the
entire production of the product as a whole. Surely this will be an interesting
observation for our colleagues working on the INSPIRE initiatives: the common
“interest” of various applications that has led to a standard geodatabase product
with common specifications – even without the definition of it in regulations
requesting this synergy!
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Land Parcel Identification System
• Practical solutions for practical problems
– Cadastre not suitable ⇒ abandoned & delimitation of ilots
on DOP
– Aerial flights impossible (e.g. military restrictions) ⇒ VHR
• Result: standardised LPIS geodatabases throughout
EU25
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 14
Since the LPIS and IACS have to be operational systems, Member States had to
be flexible in the implementation of them. As mentioned earlier, they have had to
look for workarounds when practical problems arose.
For example, France started of using the cadastre as reference for LPIS, but
after some years of implementation, it was judged that this was not an optimal
choice. After thorough study of potential alternatives, the cadastre was
abandoned and currently, farmers cultivation ilots are delimited using DOP as
basis.
Another example is e.g. Cyprus, where for military reasons no aerial photos can
be made due to flight restrictions: after successful tests it was decided to
substitute aerial ortho-photos by spaceborn ortho-imagery, using the latest
available VHR satellite images.
As a result of the implementation modalities described above, we can say that
the CAP regulations on IACS have led to a set of fairly standardised LPIS
geodatabase throughout the 25 Member States of the (future) EU.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 15
Example of a practical solution to a practical problem: delimitation of farmers’
ilots on DOP in France.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Rural Development Plans
• Many measures
• AEM & LFA subsidies
– objects with geographic component: area, landscape elements (area,
linear, point)
– environmental characteristics of land
• Cross-checks with IACS
• Currently not compulsory in GIS
• Tendency to work towards integration in (LPIS) GIS system –
less systematic approach
• Potential use of VHR – implementation phase & control
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 16
Next to the direct payments for arable and forage crops, the Rural Development
Plans also contain a set of measures for which the subsidy paid is area-related or
defined in terms of a geographic reference (points, linear, location). It concerns
the agri-environmental measures (AEM) and the Less Favoured Areas (LFA).
The Member States are obliged to manage the subsidy applications that farmers
lodge on a yearly basis for this type of subsidy in a system that allows direct
cross-checks and exchange of information with the IACS system.
Currently, this system does not contain compulsorily a GIS reference, although
we note a tendency to work towards the integration of the required information on
the declared land parcels into a GIS, often linking it in some way or another to the
LPIS. This approach is, however, not followed systematically in all Member
States.
In various ways and at various levels, the potential use of VHR for the
management of the said geo-referenced measures of the Rural Development
Plan is being investigated. Not only would this type of data be useful at the
control stage (for which it was initially mainly looked into), but it could also be
very helpful at the implementation stage to increase awareness of the farmer
about the actual commitment he takes and to carry out a sort of pre-check on
eligibility of the contracted elements. In this context, it could be that larger parts
of the national territories would be covered by such data. But this remains to be
seen in the future.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 17
Example of use of VHR in control of extensive orchards in Germany.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Subsidies permanent crops
• Olive tree register
– Mediterranean countries (5 + 4)
– GIS compulsory (November 2003)
– All parcels for which subsidy is requested (but only that part of
territory)
– location & boundaries parcels, location trees
– Compatibility with IACS
– DOP
• Specs ≈ LPIS
• Update : DOP or VHR
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 18
A third group of agricultural subsidies that contain a geographic component are
part of the permanent crop subsidies.
The crop for which the geographic component is most explicit is definitely the
olive tree. The nine Mediterranean countries of the EU25 have to set up
according the EU legislation an olive tree register, compulsory in a GIS system
by November 2003.
The olive GIS comprises all parcels for which olive subsidy is requested and is
therefore not so complete as the LPIS for arable and forage lands. Its contents,
however, is quite detailed: both geographic location of olive tree parcels
(including their boundaries) and the location of the individual olive trees are
recorded in the geographic database with good precision. The system for the
management of the subsidy applications (including the geographic part) has to be
compatible with IACS.
Throughout the nine Member States concerned, DOP with specifications similar
to the LPIS ones are systematically used to build up the GIS. For the coming
update of the GIS, the use of VHR is being investigated.
Here again, we see the CAP as driving force behind the construction of
standardised geodatabases over a large part of Europe.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
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Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 19
Example of DOP used to initially set up the olive GIS.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
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Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 20
Example of VHR that could be used for update of the olive GIS.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
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Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Subsidies permanent crops
• Vineyard register
– All vineyards registered
– GIS not compulsory
• 4 countries GIS reference charts
• Tendency towards GIS
– Compatibility with IACS
• Nuts
– New regulation under discussion – CAP reform
– Area-based subsidies
– GIS ???
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 21
Other permanent crop registers that are set up in the frame of the CAP do have a
geographic component, but are not so “sophisticated” as the olive tree GIS in
terms of corresponding geographic databases.
The vineyard register contains all the vineyards, but no obligation to create a GIS
is included in the EU legislation. At present, only 4 countries use GIS reference
charts, but a tendency towards the use of a GIS starts to show.
For the nuts sector, a the new regulation is under discussion in light of the CAP
reform. Most probably the reformed nuts sector will include area-based subsidies,
although it is not clear whether a GIS component will be incorporated.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Geographic data resulting from CAP regulations
• CAP catalyst starting 90’s
• IACS regulations stimulating/driving force for
construction of geodatabases
• MS gradually improved quality & accuracy
• Often available on-line for:
–
–
–
–
National / Regional Administrations
Associated bodies involved in control
Farmers
Extension services & farmers’ associations
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 22
In conclusion, we can say that starting the early 90’s, the Common Agricultural
Policy has been a catalyst in the area of geo-data. Especially the IACS
regulations have been a driving force for the production of large geographic
databases.
A very positive point to note is that Member States have spontaneously improved
the quality and the accuracy of the underlying basic data used to produce the
geographic databases required for IACS, although there was no obligation in the
regulations to do so.
We see that nowadays, the geo-databases created in the context of the CAP are
generally made available (often on-line via a dedicated network or over the
internet) not only to the National and Regional Administrations, but also to their
associated bodies involved in the control of the subsidy applications, to the
farmers, to extension services and to farmers’ associations.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Geographic data resulting from CAP regulations
• relatively speaking minor efforts needed to make them
interoperable across MS (EU25)
• synergy with other sectors & harmonisation of data
specifications
• even without explicit specifications in form of
regulation!!
• ? Accessibility to those geodatabases at EC level
• ? Need to start looking into regulations on this
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 23
We can consider two major types of geographic integration when looking at the
geographic databases produced under the impulse of the CAP: “horizontal”
geographic integration and “vertical” geographic integration.
Regarding the vertical geographic integration, we observe that the synergy
across sectors and harmonisation of data specifications has already started in
some countries and is in selected cases done at very advanced level. This is
certainly an encouraging point to notice, because this process happened
spontaneously, driven by common sense and without any explicit specification in
the regulations.
Horizontal geographic integration: Since the LPIS and the underlying/related
geographic databases are produced by the Member States according to
common specifications regarding quality, accuracy, up-to-dateness and to a good
extent the contents, they are already at a fairly high level compatible with each
other. Relatively speaking, the efforts to make them interoperable across the
EU25 would be not very large, but have not been embarked on yet.
Obviously, the question arises about the accessibility of the mentioned
geographic databases at European level, by e.g. the European Commission. At
present, such accessibility is not a fact and no initiatives in this respect have
started to date. One could wonder if the time is ripe to start active discussion on
this issue, to envisage formulating regulations at EU level.
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Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen
Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing unit
Contact details
http://mars.jrc.it/
Els De Roeck
[email protected]
Jacques Delincé, Head of MARS Unit
[email protected]
4th GMES Forum, Baveno, 26-28/11/2003 slide 24
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