EEA geospatial data catalogue
Landscape fragmentation Effective Mesh Density: major anthropogenic fragmenting elements (FGA1-S) - version 2.0, Nov. 2016
The Effective Mesh Density (seff) is a measure of the degree to which movement between different parts of the landscape is interrupted by a Fragmentation Geometry (FG). FGs are defined as the presence of impervious surfaces and traffic infrastructure, focusing only on major roads. The more FGs fragment the landscape, the higher the effective mesh density hence the higher the fragmentation. The geographic coverage of the dataset is EEA39.
An important consequence of landscape fragmentation is the increased isolation of ecosystem patches that breaks the structural connections and decreases resilience and ability of habitats to provide various ecosystem services. Fragmentation also influences human communities, agriculture, recreation and overall quality of life. Monitoring how fragmentation decreases landscape quality and changes the visual perception of landscapes provides information for policy measures that aim at improving ecosystem condition and restoration as well as maintaining the attractiveness of landscapes for recreational activities.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 2016-11-30
- Date (Creation)
- 2016-11-30
- Edition
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2.0
- Citation identifier
- eea_r_3035_1_km_fga1-s_p_2011-2016_v02_r00
- Citation identifier
- DAT-222-en
- Point of contact
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Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role European Environment Agency
Point of contact
- Spatial representation type
- Grid
Spatial resolution
- Spatial resolution
- 1 km
- Topic category
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- Environment
Extent
))
Extent
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2011-11-30 2016-08-31
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Irregular
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
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Habitats and biotopes
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Soil
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Transport networks
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- GEMET
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built-up area
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built environment
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animal habitat
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animal corridor
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- Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.
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EEA39
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- EEA Management Plan
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2019 1.8.4
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- EEA topics
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Land use
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Biodiversity
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Agriculture and food
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Forests and forestry
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Resource constraints
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
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License CC-BY 4.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).
Resource constraints
- Access constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- no limitations to public access
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Data quality info
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Report
Result
- Title
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Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Explanation
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See the referenced specification
Resource lineage
- Statement
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The seff value is calculated based on the Effective Mesh Size (meff) index, such as seff=1000 km2/meff. Hence seff is the number of meshes per 1000 km2. The meff index expresses the probability that any two points chosen randomly in an area are connected; that is, not separated by barriers of a Fragmentation Geometry (FG) such as transport routes or built-up areas. Hence, meff is a measure of landscape connectivity, i.e. the degree to which movements between different parts of the landscape are possible. The larger the meff, the more connected the landscape. The Copernicus High Resolution Layer - Imperviousness degree (30% of IMD) is the source layer for the build-up area. The Open Street Map (OSM) database is the source of the transport infrastructure. Only these elements from the OSM are included in the major anthropogenic fragmentation: motorways and motorways links, trunk and trunk links, primary roads and primary roads links, railroads. Tunnels are excluded from the dataset.The mapping computation steps are:
1) selection of build-up areas from the Copernicus High Resolution Imperviousness Degree layer
2) selection of transport routes relevant to the fragmentation geometry
3) deleting of tunnels from the transport routes
4) creating of buffers around the transport routes. A buffer size is dependent on the route class
6) erasing of build-up areas and the buffered transport routes from the seamless EEA39 territory layer
7) computation of meff values for each 1km sq reporting unit
8) computation of seff values for each 1km sq reporting unit
See:
Jaeger, J. A.G.(2000): Landscape division, splitting index, and effective mesh size: New measures of landscape fragmentation. Landscape ecology 15(2), pp 115-130
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1008129329289
Moser, B., Jaeger, J.A.G., Tasser, E., Eiselt, B., Tappeiner, U. (2007): Modification of the effective mesh size for measuring landscape fragmentation to solve the boundary problem. Landscape Ecology 22,pp 447–459.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10980-006-9023-0
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Reference System Information
Reference System Information
- Code
- EPSG:3035
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- e302cc81-7167-4a2a-9458-a3b8de9c62d6
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role European Environment Agency
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource type
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
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https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/api/records/e302cc81-7167-4a2a-9458-a3b8de9c62d6
- Date info (Creation)
- 2018-05-18T13:52:00Z
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-10-09T11:19:42.576494Z
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115/19139
- Edition
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1.0
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