Land Use/Cover Area frame Survey (LUCAS) - forest types

LUCAS is an in-situ area frame survey, which means that the data are gathered through direct observations made by surveyors in the field. This survey is carried out every three years since 2006 for EU changes in land cover and land use. LUCAS points belong to the intersections of a 2 km grid that includes around 1 M points all over the EU. During the LUCAS 2018 survey, a sample of around 240 000 of these points is visited on the spot by 750 field surveyors, whilst another 98 000 points are photo-interpreted in the office. The points are selected on the basis of stratification information. The land cover/use statistics derived from the LUCAS survey are unique as they are fully standardised to use the same definitions and methodology, and are comparable among Member States. Types of land cover and visible land use are broken down into harmonised LUCAS categories. The full supporting documents for the survey comprise a field form, where all the measured variables are listed, and detailed field surveyors' instructions, which describe quality control procedures.

The full description of the statistical data set is available in the land cover/use statistics metadata (source: Land cover/use statistics - Eurostat (europa.eu)).
For the field campaign in the period 2009-2012 the LUCAS forestry classes were aligned to that of the FAO. Important change was the splitting of the LUCAS Woodland land cover class into the Lucas forestry classes' Woodland' (equal to the FAO Forest class) and 'Schrubland' (equal to FAO class Other Wooded Land) (source: Land cover and land use, landscape (LUCAS) (lan) (europa.eu)).
In LUCAS Forest types are classified according to the forest type classification of the European Environment Agency which are aligned with the EUNIS habitat classification (source: LUCAS2015_C3-Classification_20150227 (europa.eu)).
One of the limitations of LUCAS with respect to forests is the missing of additional (non-agricultural) information on forest (source: LUCAS_Copernicus_Report_v2-2.pdf)

Source: Harmonised information on land cover and land use is collected through the LUCAS survey provided by EUROSTAT

The full description of the statistical data set is available in the land cover/use statistics metadata.

Source: Land cover/use statistics - Eurostat (europa.eu)

For the field campaign in the period 2009-2012 the LUCAS forestry classes were aligned to that of the FAO. Important change was the splitting of the LUCAS Woodland land cover class into the Lucas forestry classes' Woodland' (equal to the FAO Forest class) and 'Schrubland' (equal to FAO class Other Wooded Land).

Source: Land cover and land use, landscape (LUCAS) (lan) (europa.eu)

In LUCAS Forest types are classified according to the forest type classification of the European Environment Agency which are aligned with the EUNIS habitat classification.

Source: LUCAS2015_C3-Classification_20150227 (europa.eu)

One of the limitations of LUCAS with respect to forests is the missing of additional (non-agricultural) information on forest.

Source: LUCAS_Copernicus_Report_v2-2.pdf