A Land Suitability Assessment Method for Developing a European Land Information System for Agriculture and Environment (ELISA)

In response to the increasing need for information on the environmental and landscape impact of agricultural policies, the Soil and Waste unit of JRC-IES is developing a European Land Information System for Agriculture and Environment (ELISA). The system is built to allow for the ex-post analysis of the environmental impact of policy measures and for the ex-ante evaluation of the environmental effects of different policy scenarios in order to enable informed decisions on the implementation of policy options. A major task within ELISA is the development of a methodology for the analysis of the environmental sensitivity and land suitability of reference units. A possible option for this analysis is the use of cross-evaluation methods that have been developed to measure complex systems. These methods are based on the mathematical analysis of experts’ personal opinions. The paper first presents the concept of the ELISA system and the underlying databases (agriculture related and environmental related). Then the theoretical background of the methodology for land suitability and environmental sensitivity assessment and the development of a cross-evaluation weighted method based on expert`s opinions are discussed.

VOGT Juergen;  PODMANICZKY Laszlo;  SCHNELLER Kristzian;  ANGYAN Jozsef; 

2006-09-14

Springer Verlag

JRC31217

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC31217,