Modelling built-up land take in Europe to 2020: an assessment of the Resource Efficiency Roadmap measure on land.

Land taken by artificial surfaces has a series of environmental consequences that range from habitat degradation to reduction of the water retention capacity. The European Commission proposed setting a milestone for 2020 in the Resource Efficiency Roadmap (RERM) that will limit the amount of land take in Europe: ‘no net land take by 2050’. This paper describes a methodology to model the impacts of the 2020 land take milestone proposed in the RERM in Europe 27. An integrated modelling framework called Land use-based Integrated Sustainability Assessment Platform (LUISA) was configured to assess the spatial impact of two land take scenarios: a reference scenario, which is driven by demographic and economic trends, in compliance with the reference scenario as defined and used in the Energy Roadmap 2050; and a Target 0 scenario that follows the 2020 land take measure as proposed in the RERM. The RERM milestone proposed for land was transformed into specific configuration rules of the model, through the urban and industrial/commercial future demand. Both scenarios were compared by means of three sets of indicators that measure the built-up areas, the land take, the density and the impact on other land uses. These indicators allow addressing the following questions: [1] How the urban areas will be affected by the ‘2020 land take milestone’ and in what proportion each region should reduce the land take to make progress towards the objective of 2020 land take milestone? [2] Will this measure improve the urban density in Europe, thus promoting the sustainable growth in Europe? [3] What are the effects of this measure on other land uses? The main advantage of this methodology is that the impacts of a non-quantitative measure such as 2020 land take milestone can be transformed in quantitative goals at regional and Member State level. The method provides an overall assessment of the RERM land take measure however more detailed data on target definition would be required for a better implementation of specific land take goals.

LOPES BARBOSA Ana Luisa;  VALLECILLO RODRIGUEZ Sara;  BARANZELLI Claudia;  JACOBS Christiaan;  BATISTA E SILVA Filipe;  PERPIÑA CASTILLO Carolina;  LAVALLE Carlo;  MAES Joachim; 

2016-12-19

ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS

JRC91873

0964-0568,   

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09640568.2016.1221801,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC91873,   

10.1080/09640568.2016.1221801,