Ecosystem accounting

Ecosystem condition accounts aim to measure the overall quality of an ecosystem via indicators that relate to its inherent characteristics (such as diversity of species, nutrient levels etc). This is a complex challenge which can be assessed in two ways:

• indirectly, by analysing pressures acting on ecosystems
• directly, by tracking habitat condition, biodiversity and environmental quality.

The EEA has developed pilot ecosystem condition accounts that are examples of these two approaches — the rivers and lakes ecosystem condition account is based on direct measurement, while the spatial nutrient account analyses nutrient pressures. Please find these under these links:

• Summary report on pilot river and lake ecosystem condition accounts, 2010-2016 (available during April 2021)
• Summary report on pilot EU nutrient accounts

Since 2012 EEA has worked with the University of Nottingham and a wide range of international experts to develop a ‘Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services’ (CICES). The current version of CICES is available under this link: Resources

Further background information on the work of developing CICES is available via www.cices.eu

There was a workshop held in 2016 to review different ecosystem service classifications in an SEEA context, see here for documents linked to the workshop.

This section provides access to further technical work or discussion papers of EEA and its topic centres that have not been formally published as EEA publications. They are made available here to enable access to this technical resource for ecosystem accounting experts or others with a special interest in ecosystem accounting methodology. This compilation of technical output comprises:

Work on developing ecosystem accounting in the marine domain:

Analysis of potential for use of satellite data sets for ecosystem accounting:

EEA has also invested a significant amount of work to look at the potential for use of satellite data sets for ecosystem accounting, as a contribution to the international GEO working group on ‘Earth observation for ecosystem accounting’ (EO4EA). This material consists of:

• Technical analysis on potential use of satellite data sets in different ecosystem accounts as
• a technical summary as pdf file (2020)
• underpinning excel files (2020)

• An international workshop co-organised with EO4EA and JRC (2017): EO4EA Workshop_Copenhagen_March 2017
• An EU-focused workshop which explored the potential use of Copernicus data sets for ecosystem accounting: Copernicus & ecosystem accounting in EU - WS April 2018

The first description of EEA land accounts for Europe can be found in Report No 11/2006, which established the core principles and methods for land and ecosystem accounting at the EEA: Land accounts for Europe 1990-2000 — towards integrated land and ecosystem accounting

This EEA briefing (2020) summarises the current approach and analytical use of land accounts at EEA: Land cover accounts – an approach to geospatial environmental accounting

It is supported by this ETC/ULS report (2020) on Land and ecosystem accounts for Europe: Towards geospatial environmental accounting, by which the European Topic Centre on Urban, land and soil systems describes the technical background and implementation of EEA land and ecosystem accounts with ETC/ULS support

The EEA water accounts are the first comprehensive physical water asset and flow accounts at the water basin scale covering much of Europe. This data base is the culmination of many years of work and was published in 2019.

Work is ongoing to update the water accounts data base at the scale of WFD River Basin Districts. This will enable a more quantitative assessment of the impacts of drivers on water resources, state of water and freshwater ecosystems at the WFD RBD scale.

The following reports and data sets represent key outputs of the EEA in relation to land and water accounting. This is formally part of the Central Framework of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA CF) but the work presented here underpins the production of EEA ecosystem accounts, so is included in this webpage.

The first description of EEA land accounts for Europe can be found in Report No 11/2006, which established the core principles and methods for land and ecosystem accounting at the EEA: Land accounts for Europe 1990-2000 — towards integrated land and ecosystem accounting

This EEA briefing (2020) summarises the current approach and analytical use of land accounts at EEA: Land cover accounts – an approach to geospatial environmental accounting

It is supported by this ETC/ULS report (2020) on Land and ecosystem accounts for Europe: Towards geospatial environmental accounting, by which the European Topic Centre on Urban, land and soil systems describes the technical background and implementation of EEA land and ecosystem accounts with ETC/ULS support

The EEA water accounts are the first comprehensive physical water asset and flow accounts at the water basin scale covering much of Europe. This data base is the culmination of many years of work and was published in 2019.

Work is ongoing to update the water accounts data base at the scale of WFD River Basin Districts. This will enable a more quantitative assessment of the impacts of drivers on water resources, state of water and freshwater ecosystems at the WFD RBD scale.

• Background paper and presentations from a workshop (2018) of the EU INCA project to help develop a geo-spatial data platform for ecosystem accounting at EU-level.
• A discussion paper on defining and measuring ecosystem condition (2017)
• Final reference document on natural capital accounting (for consultation with experts, 2015)