Ecologic Institute is member of the European Topic Centre on Urban, Land and Soil System (ETC/ULS) which works with the European Environment Agency (EEA) under a Framework Partnership Agreement for the period from 2019 to 2021.
The ETC/ULS aims to provide support to the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the following areas:
- Monitoring, data and information systems: The ETC/ULS provides support to EEA in efficient data provision and processing, visualisation and dissemination of urban, land and soil related data, taking into account relevant information such as socio-economic, earth observation, governance or health data - including the development of the Integrated Data Platform and the EEA ecosystem accounting with land, water and nutrient accounts
- Indicators: The ETC/ULS supports the EEA in the development and implementation of indicators to support regular environmental assessments indicating its state and trends and to support policy processes in the urban, soil and land use area, including for instance forest indicators.
- Assessments: The ETC/ULS provide scientific and expert knowledge base for assessments on different land use topics, including the Working Group on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem and their Services with specific focus on wetland and forest ecosystems.
Ecologic Institute's expertise in the ETC/ULS covers soils, forests and land use policy evaluation. In particular, it carries out screening and review of the evolving needs from EU policy regarding geospatial information and indicators. It also reviews the data, information and indicators needs of the new EU Forest Strategy for 2030.