Bernadett Csonka, Tamás Tapsonyi, Erzsébet Szabó, Ákos Szerletics Agriculture and Rural Development Agency, (ARDA - HU), Directorate of Direct Payment - October 2015. Managing EFA declarations and the development of LPIS in year 2015. GAEC WS - Prague
Outline EFA declarations in 2015 Anomalies of size limits and visibility conditions LPIS tasks related to the CAP reform The advantages and possibilities of the continuous LC layer in LPIS Open issues
EFA declarations in 2015 LFs with LPIS EFA layer in 2015: group of trees - 31830 solitary tree - 14053 pound - 1301 sweep pole well - 3110, cumenian hills - 979, buffer strip along water bodies - 25237 LFs with no LPIS EFA layer in 2015 : wooded strips trees in line ditches eligible hectares along forest edges, with or without production Parcel based EFAs: fallow land, catch crops or green cover, nitrogen fixing crops, SRC, afforestation
Geometry of the EFA declarations in 2015 Land laying fallow Wooded strip Field margin Field margin Catch crop or green cover N-fixing crop Land laying fallow
Statistics of the EFA declarations in HU 2015 Type of EFA feature EFA Number of EFA in the Net declared Area counted as EFA using the weighting Number of % of farmers (SUM= 172 Code LPIS layer area (ha) factor (ha) farmers 000) Land laying fallow 1 121 711 122 193,84 19 492 11,33% Wooded strips 3 2 011 4 026,52 2 345 1,36% Isolated trees 4 14053 0 1,88 309 0,18% Trees in line 5 202 408,79 680 0,40% Group of trees 6 31830 221 335,33 1 123 0,65% Field margin 7 3 950 5 932,54 1 996 1,16% Ponds 8 1301 35 52,70 117 0,07% Ditches 9 934 1 875,11 1 795 1,04% Cumenian hills (Arch) 10 979 116 145,36 198 0,12% Sweep pole well 11 3110 0 0,07 24 0,01% Water protection buffer strip 12 25237 0 22,73 102 0,06% Eligible hectars along forest edges - with production 15 1 580 475,04 1 153 0,67% Eligible hectars along forest edges - wiouth production 16 289 462,20 263 0,15% Short Rotation Coppice 17 579 174,04 35 0,02% Aforested area 18 1033 4 824 4 833,17 388 0,23% Catch crops or green cover 19 157 262 47 561,24 10 453 6,08% Nitrogen fixing crops 20 213 810 150 285,62 16 086 9,35% 85 952 507 524 338 786,20 56 559 33,27%
Type of EFA feature having a completeas LPIS layer Use of the complete EFA coverage Number of EFA in the LPIS layer Number of declared EFA 2015 % of declaring the EFA compared to the LPIS Share of all delared number of EFA units Isolated trees 14053 477 3,39% 0,37% Group of trees 31830 1740 5,47% 1,37% Ponds 1301 181 13,91% 0,14% Cumenian hills 979 237 24,21% 0,18% Sweep pole well 3110 28 0,90% 0,02% Sum: 51273 2663 5,19% Type of EFA features declared but not having an LPIS layer Number of delared EFA units % of delared EFA units Land laying fallow 39812 31,25% Wooded strips - LF 7780 6,11% Trees in line - LF 1415 1,11% Field margin - LF 9731 7,64% Ditches - LF 5101 4,00% Water protection buffer strip 169 0,13% Eligible hectars along forest edges - with production 3804 2,99% Eligible hectars along forest edges - wiouth production 470 0,37% Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) 82 0,06% Aforested area 1033 0,81% Catch crops or green cover 19385 15,21% Nitrogen fixing crops 35974 28,23% 127416 The efficiency of using the potencial EFA coverage is surprisingly low, farmers feels safe to declare parcel based EFAs. 6,2 % of the farmers declared a LF, 372 ha is the sum net declared area of 2663 LF having LPIS-EFA layer, ave size =1397 m2 24027 declared LFs with no LPIS EFA layer in 2015 : 7089 ha, ave size = 2954 m2 QUESTIONS: Is it economical, to create a complete potential coverage at all? OR to review all declared unit to become a reference OTSC rate? What is the value of potential coverage from the point of payment security?
LF limits set in the Art. 45. 1307/2013. does not always fit to the local ecological conditions Typical wooded strip, 17 m with 2 large arable parcel by the side high value, but useless for EFA 27,9 m, can be a forest acc. to national rules Wooded strip, 8,4 m OK for EFA Why wooded strips can only be accepted up to 10 meters? According to national law, a forest is minimum 5000 m2 and 20 meters wide. Valuable linear ecological wooded strips does not count at all between 10-20 meters. Can 10 m from only one side be taken into consideration, although no limit is visible? How to manage the update, if the trees on a field margin having 10-20 m width grows over 50% canopy cover? it is not a field margin any more, but neither a wooded strip: while the ecological value is increased, the feature is out of the EFA elements Typical wooded strip, 17,6 m
How to define forest to validate the strip along forest edge? The national reg. states that a forest is > 5000 m2 and wider than 20 meters, connection to arale land is measured by GPS + forest neighbourhood control is done by RS Can new plantations or a clear- cutting with coppice be accepted? Can we accept wooded strips connected to larger forest units? The black line is a declaration for a strip along forest edge with production. It is a wooded strip 17 m wide, not suitable for EFA woded strip, connected to a larger forest. The black line is a declaration for a strip along forest edge with production. The strip was accepted as part of the forest.
Main characteristics of the Hungarian LPIS Continuous, topologically coherent coverage of physical blocks, digitized in GIS on ortho-photos 3-years cycle rotational update based on ortho-photos + review of LPIS based on farmers notices and OTSC feedback Created and maintained by the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing since 2002 Increasingly developed additional layers from year to year Contains complete land cover data - independent from the declarations EC LPIS Quality Assurance and it s feedback is in operation since 2010. 100% geospatial aid application (GSAA) + open LPIS web browser
Developments of LPIS-Hu already impelmeneted towards the CAP reform Decreasing the MMU of non-eligible areas since 2011 (>700-800 m2), 2012 > 500 + 3-4 meters for linear elements Changing to 1/3rd of the area at the rotational update, update on CwRS images and complete ortho coverage in 2015. Development of DTM (GSD 40) and deriving new slope category thematic layers Complete land cover layer, compliant with the actual MMU under LPIS, using 19 eligible and 24 non-eligible categories Categorising the LC and eligibility of the former non-eligible areas because of the 2003 reference layer Additional eligibility control (ownership or renting documents) for parcels declared on a non-declared ( closed ) area of a PB Preliminary PG layer New GAEC/EFA layers in 2015: group of trees, pounds, solitary trees further EFA layers wooded strips, trees in line, filed margins - will be ready for 2016! Defining rules of how non-eligibility, GAEC-non-compliance and the new minimum maintenance rules relates to each other Creating 12 new thematic layers for the new RD programme (2016-) Opening the use of the LPIS data for: agricultural risc management, for national regional planning
All data of the selected PB, including archive and versioning Technical solutions of the publication of LPIS GIS data ~1,18 million declared agricultural parcel ~120 000 farmers PB layer: 1,27 million polygons ~ 409 100 PBs 360 000 have eligible area Ave PB size: 22,7 ha Public browser of LPIS-Hu http://www.mepar.hu/ From 2008 : e-submission of the area declaration Thematic layers : NATURA 2000 NATURA under ministry of defence LFA HNV Slope 12% and 17% GAEC LF: group of trees, sweet pole well, cumenian mounds, pounds, solitary trees water protection strips terraces on vineyards Aforested areas before and after 2008 SAPS nonelig/elig. SRC Preliminary PG, sensitive PG For new RDM: areas endangered by waterlog, by flood, by drought, 8 target type of AE zonal schemes
Minimal Mapping Unit of features in the LPIS, 1:5000 scale The Minimal Mapping Unit defined by the EC: 100 or < 100 m2 required by the EC, but 300 m2 is the technical limit taking into consideration the buffer tolerance values! Our experience shows, that 300 m2 with clear boundaries can be mapped, but stability and positional accuracy decreases in case of natural habitats with fuzzy boundaries. DSCG/2014/33 guidance JRC - DS-CDP-2015-10_TG_Data operability
Does it worth the CAPI invetment? Example of a 309 m2 A well detectable case: The house is 88 m2, a 170 m2 exclusion was done in LPIS, excluding part of the PP as well. If we have in average on the eligible area 3 non-delineted areas with 300 m2 in 360 000 PBs = 32 400 ha = 0,65 % of the declared area (4 991 119 ha), It means 7,8 mill. EURO SAPS payment To digitise 1 080 000 polygon is 62% of the existing polygons!!! - currently there are 1,6 million polygon in the LC layer, and only the CAPI takes minimum ~ 1600 manday's (28 month for 60 persons) appr. 506 000 EURO + IT capacity increase in the entire system! 6,4 % cost only for LPIS, while < 2% is the entire IACS implementation cost!
Exclusion of roads / path? under 5 meters width DSCG/2014/33 guidance: 2 meters rule of delineating roads as separate polygons: 2 meters is less than the width of the tracks bare soil roads created to reach the crop parcels are not so stable, and reflected different on an early and late summer image how to detect seasonal differences? roads can often be physical block boundaries that are used by machines, changing their positions rapidly and dividing the grassland but partially covered by grass The 2-meter rule does not fit the technical capability of the delineation, and might lead to unstable physical block boundaries!??? This tractor track is 3-3,5 meters wide on this img, connects 5 parcels and the detectable with depends on the vegetation by the side from 2-4 m.
The advantages and possibilities of the continuous LC layer in LPIS Exclusion of builtup (AS) is done > 300-500 m2 Further LC specific administrative controls can be implemented under IACS Better targeting zones, different thematic categorisations and monitoring for specific activities (like: eco, AE ) Flexible selection of EFA LFs: group of trees, filed margins, tree rows, and to monitor their neighbouring LC changes if the EFA specific LC groups exisits Basic of biotop diversity monitoring, to see the benefit of the EFA as an ecological network element
The disadwantages of the continuous RP and LC layer in LPIS Why to exclude all non-eligibles <100-300-1000 m2 in a non-declared RP, or in a non-declared part of a PB if it does not have an effect for IACS? Why LPIS cannot contain areas without GSAA if all our farmers have an e- declaration? Bottom- up model: In an LPIS containing only the declared area (a noncontinuous coverage) additional EFA features are captured and only the covered area has to be examined for smaller MMU. Up-to-down: we select features among the existing LC for EFA evaluation (categorisation, further division), and we select certain LC for different administrative controls. Why to exclude all small hardly detectable features at the area of the PB where there is no declaration? The PB delineated independently from the farers, or should we state that these RPs are not acceptable any more?
New Challenge of the LPIS QC: controlling EFA layers? ETS CAPI is done by the PA, with a QGIS and PostgreSQL based specific GIS application developed for this purpose from 2010 Based on the EU-LPISQAF technology a sample based QC of the annual LPIS data delivery had been introduced in the PA since 2014. LFs in the ETS up to 2015: LFs not having an LPIS-GIS layer but part of the eligible area according to the rules, are part of the eligible LCCs conflicts with the 100 m2 rule! LFs in a separate LPIS-GIS layer and being eligible are coded as independent LCC of the eligibility profile. If the LF is not complying with its definition, and coded as non-eligible area, the RP usually fails on area conformance or on contamination. No LF specific code is given if an error is found. Question from 2016: Should we - control LF layers according to their definitions? - use specific error codes for LF layers? - store each LF layer s definition in details in the ATS? - seems to be again a quite complex issue, preparation and test is needed before real implementation!
Genereal conclusions In the EC guidance more detailed delineation is required for LPIS than technically possible and experimentally accepted based on the source images: ortho + VHR Requirements of DSCG/2014/33 guidance: CAN IT BE FULLY COMPLETED AT ALL? Can it be implemented properly if there is no use of pro-rata? Under 300 m2 and 5 m width MMU delineation will dramatically increase the number of polygons, the CAPI time, with very small benefit on the side of eligible area delineation and payment allocation. LFs in Art 45. 639/2014 are unnecessarily size limited, i.e. ecologically valuable elements will fall out, but they are handled individually not looking at the ecological network for biodiversity value. An LPIS with continuous coverage requires specific strategy
Thank you for the attention!