Welcome to the Land Management and Natural Hazards Unit!
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The mission of the Land Management and Natural Hazards Unit is to support EU policies and programmes linked to sustainable land management practices in the fields of forestry, soils and weather-driven natural hazards with a particular focus on the development of environmental information systems. The Unit directly supports European policies in the fields of Environment and Sustainability, Forestry and Soils, Regional Development, and Civil Protection.
The Unit leads the efforts of the IES in developing European Data Centres in the fields of forestry and soils. In addition, the Unit deals with the development of strategies for sustainable land management, in particular related to weather-driven natural hazards such as floods, droughts and forest fires. Forecasting tools developed in-house provide the European Commission services and Member States with the real-time data needed to mitigate emergency situations.
The work of the Unit is carried out in four Research Actions:
Action 22003 - FOREST (Forest Data and Information Systems) activities on forest monitoring are essential to the implementation of indicators related to the monitoring of forest spatial patterns and forest fragmentation, as these are of key importance for the EU policy to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
Action 22004 - SOIL (Soil Data and Information Systems), through the European Soil Data Centre, provides the Commission with a single focal point for soil data and information, and supports the other Commission’s services in negotiations within the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection.
Action 22008 - DESERT (Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought - Monitoring, Mitigation and Early Warning) joins forces with the international scientific community in order to provide scientific support to, and develop adequate tools for, the implementation of policies and conventions related to drought and desertification in Europe and worldwide.
Action 32001 - FLOODS (Prediction, Mitigation, Impact Assessment) focuses on the development of improved early warning, monitoring and damage assessment systems for weather-related natural hazards, and of tools for assessing the effects of changes in climate and land use, risk mapping and adaptation to extreme events caused by the current climate or predicted climate.
Contact Info
Unit Head:
Guido Schmuck - Tel.:+39-0332-789514 E-mail: guido.schmuck(at)jrc.ec.europa.eu
Communication Officer:
Arwyn Jones - Tel.: +39-0332-789162 E-mail: arwyn.jones(at)jrc.ec.europa.eu
