Data extracted in April 2025.
Planned article update: none.
Highlights
In 2022, some 5.6% of the EU’s agricultural land was covered by landscape features.
Woody landscape features – including isolated trees, a line of trees, hedgerows, riparian woody vegetation (alongside water courses), or narrow strips of land covered by trees and shrubs – were the most common landscape feature across the EU in 2022.
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The Land Use and Cover Area frame Survey (LUCAS) is a field survey conducted through direct observations by surveyors. It is the largest harmonised field survey across the European Union (EU). Managed by Eurostat, the 2022 survey introduced a module focusing on landscape features for the first time. Landscape features refer to small, non-productive elements within agricultural landscapes that support biodiversity and ecosystem services: they include hedges, trees, field margins, ditches, dry-stone or earth walls, ponds and springs.
The importance of landscape features is recognised in various European policies, including the common agricultural policy (CAP) and the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030. The LUCAS 2022 landscape features module aims to provide comprehensive support for environmental and agricultural monitoring. Collecting detailed data on landscape features, it aims to help analyse changes in land use, habitat quality and biodiversity trends, supporting the CAP’s performance monitoring and evaluation framework.
According to the first results from this new module, landscape features covered an estimated 5.6% of the EU’s agricultural land in 2022. Of this, woody features accounted for the largest share (3.2%), followed by grassy (1.9%), wet (0.4%) and stony (0.2%) landscape features.
Among the EU countries, Malta (27.7%) and Cyprus (21.1%) had the highest shares of agricultural land covered by landscape features in 2022, reflecting their local geography (sloping, terraced terrain) and traditional farming structures (small, fragmented plots). In the remaining EU countries, landscape features covered less than a tenth of all agricultural land, with shares ranging from 8.9% in Portugal to less than 4.0% in Lithuania, Poland and Romania (the latter having the lowest share at 3.4%).
Agricultural land covered by landscape features
Woody landscape features include isolated trees, trees in lines or groups, hedgerows, riparian woody vegetation (along watercourses) and narrow strips of land covered by trees and shrubs; for inclusion in the survey, these features should be between 1 and 20 metres wide. In 2022, woody landscape features covered 3.2% of the EU’s agricultural land.
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- Woody landscape features are found in every EU country, although their prevalence varies considerably: they were the most prevalent type of landscape feature in 24 out of 27 EU countries.
- Cyprus (11.9%) and Malta (9.8%) had the highest shares of their agricultural land covered by woody landscape features, followed at some distance by Ireland (5.7%).
- 3 EU countries had less than 2.0% of their agricultural land covered by woody landscape features: Poland (1.9%), Spain and Lithuania (both 1.7%). These low shares may reflect, among other factors, intensive agricultural practices with large-scale monoculture farming or wildfire management practices in arid regions.
Grassy landscape features include field margins and buffer strips (along ditches or ponds), or any other patches of semi-natural herbaceous vegetation, as long as they are next to agricultural land and measure between 1 and 20 metres wide. Across the EU, grassy landscape features covered 1.9% of agricultural land in 2022.
- Among EU countries, the highest shares of grassy landscape features were observed in Cyprus (9.0%) and Malta (6.9%) – in line with the results for woody landscape features. The next highest shares were recorded in Italy and Sweden (both 3.1%).
- Spain was the only EU country where grassy landscape features accounted for the largest share, covering 2.6% of its agricultural land (out of a total of 5.3% for all landscape features).
- At the other end of the distribution, Ireland (0.9%) and Romania (0.4%) were the only EU countries to report shares of less than 1.0%.
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Wet landscape features include accumulations of still water that are either natural (such as wetlands and lagoons) or artificial (pits and waterholes), as well as watercourses (such as streams, ditches and channels). Ditches that are dry at the time of observation can still be recorded as wet landscape features if the surrounding vegetation reveals a regular presence of water. Within the EU, wet landscape features covered 0.4% of the EU’s agricultural land in 2022.
- The prevalence of wet landscape features was generally lower than that of woody or grassy landscape features.
- The highest shares among EU countries were observed in the Netherlands (3.4%) and Finland (2.2%), while no other country reported a share exceeding 0.7%.
- The relatively high shares in the Netherlands and Finland may reflect, among other factors, the presence of polders, rural canals, bogs, peatland, fens and marshes within their agricultural landscapes.
- The Netherlands was the only EU country where wet landscape features accounted for the largest share, 3.4% of its agricultural land (out of a total of 7.2% for all landscape features).
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Stony landscape features include piles or arrangements of rock or stone within an agricultural context. These features may be natural (standing stones) or man-made, often with historical origins (dry-stone walls, clearance cairns). In 2022, stony landscape features covered 0.2% of the EU’s agricultural land.
- Malta had, by far, the highest share of stony landscape features among the EU countries, as they covered more than a tenth of Maltese agricultural land (10.7%), while no other EU country reported a share higher than the 0.8% observed in Portugal and Spain.
- Malta was the only EU country where stony landscape features accounted for the largest share, covering 10.7% of its agricultural land (out of a total of 27.7% for all landscape features). Its rural areas are characterised by terraced fields and dry-stone walls, traditional structures used both to mark agricultural plots and prevent soil erosion on sloping terrain.
- 12 out of 27 EU countries reported no stony landscape features on their agricultural land.
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Landscape features across different types of agricultural land
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Figure 5 highlights the share of 3 different types of agricultural land – arable land, permanent cropland and permanent grassland – covered by landscape features. In 2022, landscape features were most prevalent across the EU’s permanent grassland (6.6%) and permanent cropland (6.4%), while they covered a smaller proportion of the EU’s arable land (5.0%). Note these shares are not additive: in other words, the sum of the individual shares doesn’t equal the share for all agricultural land (5.6%), as the overall share is a weighted average.
Arable land is typically subjected to more intensive farming practices, such as frequent ploughing, tilling and crop rotation, which may disrupt or remove natural features like hedgerows, stone walls or grass strips. This could help explain why arable land tends to have fewer and smaller landscape features compared with permanent cropland or grassland. In 2022, 5.0% of the EU’s arable land was covered by landscape features.
- More than a fifth of the arable land in Malta (28.3%) and Cyprus (20.4%) was covered by landscape features; the next highest shares were in 3 other southern EU countries – Greece (9.0%), Portugal (9.0%) and Italy (8.0%).
- Malta, Greece and Spain were the only EU countries where landscape features covered a higher share of the arable land than either permanent cropland or grassland.
- In Romania, 2.7% of arable land was covered by landscape features – the lowest share among EU countries. This may reflect, among other factors, the historical legacy of large-scale farm collectives that evolved into commercial enterprises focused on maximising production; the prevalence of very small, subsistence-oriented farms, where production may be prioritised over natural landscape features due to limited resources.
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Permanent crops include fruit trees, vineyards and olive groves. Permanent cropland tends to have more landscape features (than arable land), which may be linked to this type of farming generally disturbing the soil less frequently, while space may be left around the productive area for elements like field margins, trees or hedgerows. In 2022, landscape features covered 6.4% of the EU’s permanent cropland.
- The highest shares, among EU countries, were recorded in Cyprus (23.4%), Malta (23.1%), Finland (12.4%) and Portugal (11.9%).
- There were 12 EU countries where landscape features covered a higher proportion of permanent cropland than either permanent grassland or arable land.
- Czechia and Poland recorded the lowest shares, as 3.0% of their permanent cropland was covered by landscape features.
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Permanent grassland supports a relatively high density of landscape features like hedges, ponds or ditches; these features can provide shelter for livestock and promote biodiversity. In 2022, 6.6% of the EU’s permanent grassland was covered by landscape features.
- Bulgaria (10.2%) and Sweden (10.0%) were the only EU countries where landscape features covered a double-digit share of permanent grassland; there was also a relatively high share observed in Italy (9.9%).
- There were 12 EU countries where landscape features covered a higher proportion of permanent grassland than either permanent cropland or arable land.
- Greece had the lowest share of its permanent grassland covered by landscape features, at 3.5%.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
LUCAS is a field survey that follows an area-frame sampling scheme. The survey is conducted through direct observations made in situ by trained land surveyors. When a location is impractical or inaccessible (such as in urban or mountainous areas), high-resolution aerial imagery is used as an alternative.
LUCAS 2022 was conducted from March 2022 to August 2023 (the previous LUCAS survey was conducted in 2018, while the next round is planned for 2026). LUCAS 2022 included, for the first time, a module for collecting data on landscape features. It aims to provide valuable insights into the presence and characteristics of small-scale elements in the European landscape – for example, features like hedges, trees, ditches, walls and field margins – all of which play an essential role in biodiversity and ecosystem connectivity. By systematically capturing this information, the landscape features module enhances the understanding of Europe’s rural and semi-natural environments. It supports EU policy initiatives such as the European Green Deal and the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and helps integrate landscape-level data into land-use planning, environmental management and agricultural sustainability assessments.
Sampling design
LUCAS uses a 3-phase stratified random sampling approach
- phase 1 – a 2 km x 2 km grid is laid across the EU, forming the LUCAS master sample of about 1 million points
- phase 2 – a stratified sample is selected from the master grid based on land cover, region and other criteria; this forms the LUCAS core sample, with each point classified through aerial imagery or data from previous surveys
- phase 3 – a subsample of 92 633 points on agricultural land is selected for assessing landscape features; each point is surveyed with a cluster of 41 subpoints distributed across a 100 metres × 100 metres quadrat to capture scattered landscape features within the defined area more effectively.
Classifying landscape features
Within the landscape features module, each feature is classified by type, size, structure and whether it is natural or artificial. It’s important to underline that the survey only focuses on features within or directly adjacent to agricultural land, including inside agricultural fields (arable land, permanent grassland or permanent cropland); between fields; along roads, farm tracks or railways; near farm buildings; alongside water bodies (rivers, lakes and so on). To ensure consistency, the module defines minimum and maximum sizes for landscape features
- linear features should have a width between 1 metre and 20 metres
- patch features should have an area between 1 metre2 and 5 000 metres2.
Context
Traditionally, landscape features have been an integral part of agricultural land, closely linked to farming practices, while providing multiple environmental and agronomic benefits. Landscape features contribute positively to biodiversity and ecosystem services such as habitat provision, pollination, soil erosion control, water quality and climate change mitigation. In addition to environmental advantages, they can also enhance field productivity by, for example, improving soil fertility, supporting natural pest control and increasing water availability. They also hold cultural significance – examples include the ‘bocage’ landscapes of north-west France and the dry-stone walls that fragment agricultural land across Malta and Ireland.
Across much of the EU, traditional farming systems incorporate landscape features, for example, delineating boundaries or serving as natural barriers and shelter for livestock. The importance of landscape features has been recognised by several European sectoral policies, including the CAP and key components of the EU’s biodiversity strategy (for example, the Nature Restoration Regulation ((EU) 2024/1991)).
Until recently, there was no comprehensive EU-wide database on landscape features. To fill this gap, several EU bodies – Eurostat, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Environment Agency (EAA) and the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development – pooled their resources to create a policy-relevant monitoring system. The LUCAS landscape features module provides harmonised data on the extent of different types of landscape features across EU countries and for many NUTS level 2 regions (information may be confidential for those regions that have little or no agricultural land). Its goal is to establish a long-term monitoring scheme for agricultural land through regular surveys, allowing policymakers to track changes over time and assess the effects of agricultural and environmental policies.
More information
- General information – LUCAS survey
- Detailed information – Estimation of the share of landscape features in agricultural land based on the LUCAS 2022 survey
Explore further
Database
- Land cover overview by NUTS 2 region (lan_lcv_ovw)
- Land covered by artificial surfaces by NUTS 2 region (lan_lcv_art)
- Land covered by artificial surfaces - index (lan_lcv_arti)
- Land use overview by NUTS 2 region (lan_use_ovw)
- Land cover for FAO forest categories by NUTS 2 region (lan_lcv_fao)
- Settlement area (lan_settl)
Thematic section
Publications
Methodology
External links
- Copernicus – Land cover and land use mapping
- EU CAP network – Landscape features and biodiversity
- European Commission – Joint Research Centre – Landscape features in agricultural land: what is the extent?
- European Commission – Joint Research Centre – Landscape features in the EU Member States
- European Environment Agency – Land use