ETC DI Report 2024/4 Specification for calculating landscape fragmentation

11 Apr 2025

Jaroslav Dufek (GISAT), Eva Ivits (EEA)

Landscape fragmentation is a serious environmental issue and can be described as the process of dividing large, contiguous natural habitats into smaller, isolated patches. The process is primarily driven by human activities and can vary widely depending on the region and the specific contexts. The spread of built-up areas and transportation infrastructures dissects and fragment landscapes, creating barriers to wildlife movement and altering the integrity of ecological networks, leading to the direct loss of habitats.

This report presents a detailed analysis of the spatial dynamics and temporal trends of landscape fragmentation across Europe, using the effective mesh size (meff) index alongside a non-cross boundary method in a 1 km output grid.  The study confirms the increasing trend in landscape fragmentation driven by the expansion of the built-up areas and transportation infrastructure development and provides a detailed Europe-wide spatial-temporal assessment for the years 2012-2018.

Utilizing harmonized imperviousness data provided by EEA and Copernicus, and time series of the commercial TomTom® (previously known as TeleAtlas) MultiNet® data, the analysis provides a nuanced view of fragmentation patterns across the continent. Despite some inconsistencies in archived data, the results reveal a pronounced spatial heterogeneity, with Western European countries exhibiting higher fragmentation levels compared to the relatively intact landscapes of Northern Europe. Furthermore, landscape fragmentation is considered regarding the population at different spatial units (NUTS0, NUTS3, LAU) and different urbanization types (DEGURBA). The highly fragmented and densely populated regions like the Netherlands or Malta are characterized by low fragmentation per capita as a large population shares the fragmented landscape.

The analysis offers valuable insights into the geospatial distribution of landscape fragmentation, emphasizing the need for standardized spatial units in landscape analyses and the importance of addressing data inconsistencies for accurate interpretations.