High nature value farmlands can be considered as an indicator of land use intensity. Land cover changes have an impact on such farmlands if they occur on them. These impacts can be positive or negative. Urban expansion does alwayshave a clear negativeeffect on almost all kinds of land covers and land uses as it interrupts most of the natural cycles that existed before the landscape being sealed (which is most often the case when urban expansion takes place).

The following land cover flows are grouped into agricultural extensification:

• Urban residential development

• Development of economic sites and infrastructures

These data are crossed with the HNV farmland 2006 layer to map areas where those two data sets overlap. The share of areas affected is then computed per NUTS 3 by means of zonal statistics.

More information on HNV farmland: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/high-nature-value-farmland (+ include link to registration document of HNV farmlands)

High nature value farmlands can be considered as an indicator of land use intensity. Land cover changes have an impact on such farmlands if they occur on them. These impacts can be positive or negative. Urban expansion does alwayshave a clear negativeeffect on almost all kinds of land covers and land uses as it interrupts most of the natural cycles that existed before the landscape being sealed (which is most often the case when urban expansion takes place).

The following land cover flows are grouped into agricultural extensification:

• Urban residential development

• Development of economic sites and infrastructures

These data are crossed with the HNV farmland 2006 layer to map areas where those two data sets overlap. The share of areas affected is then computed per NUTS 3 by means of zonal statistics.

More information on HNV farmland: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/high-nature-value-farmland (+ include link to registration document of HNV farmlands)