IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v14y2025i8p1525-d1709052.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recent Advances in the EAGLE Concept—Monitoring the Earth’s Surface Based on a New Land Characterisation Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Stephan Arnold

    (Geo Concept, Gärtnerweg 49, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

  • Geoffrey Smith

    (Specto Natura Ltd., 9 College Road, Impington, Cambridge CB24 9PL, UK)

  • Geir-Harald Strand

    (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, NO-1431 Ås, Norway)

  • Gerard Hazeu

    (Wageningen Environmental Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Michael Bock

    (EO4Earth, German Aerospace Research and Technology Centre, Königswinterer Strass 522-524, 53227 Bonn, Germany)

  • Barbara Kosztra

    (Lechner Non-Profit Ltd., 59 Budafoki Str. E/3, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary)

  • Christoph Perger

    (Spatial Focus GmbH, Absberggasse 27/7/3, 1100 Vienna, Austria)

  • Gebhard Banko

    (Environment Agency Austria, Spittelauer Lände 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

  • Tomas Soukup

    (Gisat, Milady Horákové 57a, 170 00 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Nuria Valcarcel Sanz

    (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Paseo de la Castellana, 162, 28064 Madrid, Spain)

  • Stefan Kleeschulte

    (Space4environment Sàrl, 48, rue Gabriel Lippmann, L-6947 Niederanven, Luxembourg)

  • Julián Delgado Hernández

    (Spanish National Geographic Institute, Calle del Gral. Ibáñez de Ibero, 3, Chamberí, 28003 Madrid, Spain)

  • Emanuele Mancosu

    (European Topic Centre, University of Malaga, Edificio de Investigación Ada Byron, Arquitecto Francisco Peñalosa, 18, Campanillas, 29010 Málaga, Spain)

Abstract

The demand for land monitoring information continues to increase, but the range and diversity of the available products to date have made their integrated use challenging and, at times, counterproductive. There has therefore been a growing need to enhance and harmonise the practice of land monitoring on a pan-European level with the formulation of a more consistent and standardised set of modelling criteria. The outcome has been a paradigm shift away from a “paper map”-based world where features are given a single, fixed label to one where features have a rich characterisation which is more informative, flexible and powerful. The approach allows the characteristics to be dynamic so that, over time, a feature may only change part of its description (i.e., a forest can be felled, but it may remain as forestry if replanted) or it can have multiple descriptors (i.e., a forest may be used for both timber production and recreation). The concept proposed by the authors has evolved since 2008 from first drafts to a comprehensive and powerful tool adopted by the European Union’s Copernicus programme. It provides for the semantic decomposition of existing nomenclatures, as well as supports a descriptive approach to the mapping of all landscape features in a flexible and object-oriented manner. In this way, the key move away from classification towards the characterisation of the Earth’s surface represents a novel and innovate approach to handling complex land surface information more suited to the age of distributed databases, cloud computing and object-oriented data modelling. In this paper, the motivation for and technical approach of the EAGLE concept with its matrix and UML model implementation are explained. This is followed by an update of the latest developments and the presentation of a number of experimental and operational use cases at national and European levels, and it then concludes with thoughts on the future outlook.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Arnold & Geoffrey Smith & Geir-Harald Strand & Gerard Hazeu & Michael Bock & Barbara Kosztra & Christoph Perger & Gebhard Banko & Tomas Soukup & Nuria Valcarcel Sanz & Stefan Kleeschulte & Jul, 2025. "Recent Advances in the EAGLE Concept—Monitoring the Earth’s Surface Based on a New Land Characterisation Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-27, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:8:p:1525-:d:1709052
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/8/1525/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/8/1525/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ryan Nedd & Katie Light & Marcia Owens & Neil James & Elijah Johnson & Aavudai Anandhi, 2021. "A Synthesis of Land Use/Land Cover Studies: Definitions, Classification Systems, Meta-Studies, Challenges and Knowledge Gaps on a Global Landscape," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-30, September.
    2. Chuanrong Zhang & Xinba Li, 2022. "Land Use and Land Cover Mapping in the Era of Big Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-22, September.
    3. Nicola Mosca & Fatima Mushtaq & Victor Munene & Peter Maleh & Ndyebo Mnyanda & Rashed Jalal & Amit Ghosh, 2024. "Land Characterization System Software: Implementing Land Cover Ontology," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Clark & Stuart Phinn & Peter Scarth, 2023. "Pre-Processing Training Data Improves Accuracy and Generalisability of Convolutional Neural Network Based Landscape Semantic Segmentation," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-25, June.
    2. Sinan Demir, 2024. "Determination of suitable agricultural areas and current land use in Isparta Province, Türkiye, through a linear combination technique and geographic information systems," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 13455-13493, May.
    3. Aavudai Anandhi & Ruth Book & Gulnihal Ozbay, 2025. "A Novel Framework to Represent Hypoxia in Coastal Systems," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-31, May.
    4. Rui Luo & Jiwei Leng & Daming He & Yanbo Li & Kai Ma & Ziyue Xu & Kaiwen Zhang & Yun Luo, 2025. "Improving Traditional Metrics: A Hybrid Framework for Assessing the Ecological Carrying Capacity of Mountainous Regions," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Thomas Gloaguen & Sébastien Gadal & Jūratė Kamičaitytė & Kęstutis Zaleckis, 2025. "Structural Evolution of the Coastal Landscape in Klaipėda Region, Lithuania: 125 Years of Political and Sociocultural Transformations," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-33, June.
    6. Zebin Chen & Yonglin Chen & Chenhui Zhu & Yunping Zhang & Xiang Kong, 2025. "Determinants of Farmland Abandonment Among Peasants in Scattered Villages: The Impact of Family Structure and Social Policies in Southern China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, April.
    7. Mario Figueira & Carmen Guarner & David Conesa & Antonio López-Quílez & Tamás Krisztin, 2025. "Unveiling Land Use Dynamics: Insights from a Hierarchical Bayesian Spatio-Temporal Modelling of Compositional Data," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 30(2), pages 283-308, June.
    8. Foster Mensah & Fatima Mushtaq & Paul Bartel & Jacob Abramowitz & Emil Cherrington & Mansour Mahamane & Bako Mamane & Amadou Moctar Dieye & Patrice Sanou & Glory Enaruvbe & Ndeye Fatou Mar, 2024. "Land Cover Mapping in West Africa: A Collaborative Process," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:8:p:1525-:d:1709052. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.