CELEX: 51988PC0163
Language: en
Date: 1988-04-14
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION ADOPTING A PILOT PROJECT ON REMOTE SENSING APPLIED TO AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS

No C 119/6                                  Official Journal of,the European Communities                                     6. 5. 88
              (g) Details on how the population concerned will be warned and kept informed in the event of an
                   accident;
               (h) Details of the actions and behaviour the population concerned should take in the event of an accident;
              (i) An assurance that the company has made adequate arrangements on site, including liaison with the
                   emergency services, to deal with foreseeable accidents and to minimize their effects;
              (j) A reference to the off-site emergency plan drawn up to cope with any off-site effects from an accident.
                   This should include advice to cooperate with any instructions or requests from the emergency services
                   at the time of an accident;
              (k) Details of where further information can be obtained, such as general information on the preventive
                   safety measures taken in the industrial activity and on the emergency plan, subject to the requirements
                   of confidentiality laid down in national legislation.
               Proposal for a Council Decision adopting a pilot project on remote sensing applied to
                                                           agricultural statistics
                                                            COM(88) 163 final
                                 (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 20 April 1988)
                                                              (88/C 119/03)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                                 Whereas remote sensing must be incorporated into the
                                                                         existing statistical systems to make good specific de-
                                                                         ficiencies or weaknesses and to replace to better
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
                                                                         advantage certain aspects of the work currently being
Economic Community, and in particular Article 43
                                                                         carried out;
thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                         Whereas remote sensing could have applications — in its
                                                                         own right or as an adjunct — in the establishment and
In cooperation with the European Parliament,                             collection of agricultural statistics;
Whereas, in order to meet the needs of the common
agricultural policy, action is needed to identify and                    Whereas the experience gained by Member States in
measure as accurately and rapidly as possible the areas                   incorporating remote sensing in their own statistical
under main crops, and in particular those for which                       systems should be turned to, good account, in consul-
production aid is granted on an area basis;                               tation with the Standing Committee on Agricultural Stat-
                                                                          istics;
Whereas, for the management of the agricultural
markets,      reliable      regionally-based       estimates     of
production must be available in good time;
                                                                          Whereas remote sensing could help align the Member
                                                                          States' various agricultural statistical systems, by estab-
Whereas the availability of forecasts for the production                  lishing a common means of collecting and transmitting
of crops which have the greatest impact on world                          information;
markets, in third countries, is also relevant to the
management of agricultural markets and for the inde-
pendence of Community decision-making;
                                                                          Whereas     remote sensing could enable savings to be
                                                                          planned    in the future, either directly in the cost of
Whereas remote sensing offers a response to these needs,                  drawing    up sampling plans and of collecting statistical
which have not been met to date by the existing agri-                     data, or  indirectly in EAGGF expenditure;
 cultural statistics and forecasting systems; whereas it
 could enhance the accuracy, objectivity, speed and
 frequency with which observations are made when stat-
 istical data are collected; whereas it could help perfect                Whereas steps should be taken to develop the opera-
 agricultural forecasting models, and in particular                       tional applications of remote sensing to agricultural stat-
 establish    regionally-based        agricultural      forecasting        istics in the short, medium and long term, and to
 models;                                                                  continue the measures embarked upon;
 ---pagebreak--- 6. 5. 88                                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                    N o C 119/7
Whereas these operational applications of remote sensing                   4.    The Council shall review the project, including its
to agricultural statistics must be conducted in a manner                   financial aspects, on the basis of the first report referred
which is compatible with the Corine programme (') on                       to in Article 3, before 30 April 1991.
the establishment of an information system on the state
of the environment in the Community,                                                                  Article 2
                                                                           The Commission shall be responsible for the execution
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:                                                    of the project.
                            Article 1                                                                 Article 3
 1.   The pilot project on remote sensing applied to agri-                  1.   The Commission shall present to the European
cultural statistics, summarized in the Annex, is hereby                    Parliament and to the Council by 31 December 1990 a
adopted.                                                                   report on the progress of the work and, where necessary,
                                                                           proposals on the review of the project as provided for in
2.    The planned duration of the project is five years,                   Article 1 (4).
starting on 1 January 1989; it shall be carried out by the
Joint Research Centre in close collaboration with                          2.    On completion of the project, and in any case not
national laboratories and bodies.                                          later than 31 July 1994, the Commission shall report to
                                                                           the European Parliament and to the Council on the
3.    The amount of financing considered necessary for                     results of the activities provided for in this Decision and
the total duration of the project is 35,5 million ECU,                     on the use of the financial resources allocated to these
divided into annual tranches as shown in the Annex.                        measures.
                                                                                                      Article 4
(') OJ No L 176, 6. 7. 1985, p. 14.                                        This Decision shall take effect on 1 January 1989.
                                                                 ANNEX
              10-year project of the European Community for the application of remote sensing in Community agriculture
                                                                 statistics
              Remote sensing seems to be the most promising technique to upgrade the agriculture statistical system.
              The primary necessity is to distinguish, identify and measure the area of crops of significant importance.
              The second is to estimate production in time for making decisions. When such basic statistics are available,
              then forecasting can be considered.
              The results of this plan should fit into a framework which can be called an advanced agriculture infor-
              mation system. In the plan, emphasis will be placed upon remote sensing, but in operational use, this
              technique being seen as complementary to more conventional data. The semi-operational projects within
              the plan will test this kind of complementarity.
              While the development effort is planned to be extended over 10 years, the present proposal considers in
              some detail only the first five years. During this period, the plan should already lead to an integration of
              new methods in the Community agricultural information system. Cereals and oil seeds, which are generally
              growing on flat terrain and large fields, will be considered first. When feasible, vineyards and olive trees
              will also be dealt with because of their economic importance.
              Taking into account priorities, methodologies to be developed and the requirements of satellite data, the
              plan has been organized in seven actions (Table 1). The actions 1 to 5 each correspond to a given oper-
              ational objective. Action 6 is support (ground surveys) necessary for all the actions. Action 7 consists of
              several long term studies, not connected with one particular operational objective.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 119/8                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                             6. 5. 88
              For each action, specific methodology will be developed and development work will be undertaken in
              support of the semi-operational objective (actions 1, 2, 4 and 5), or as the very core of the action (actions 3
              to 7): see Table 2.
              In respect to the shift towards operational applications, the actions concern three different time schedules:
              — short term (three to five years): actions 1, 2 and 4,
              — medium-term (five to 10 years): actions 3 and 5,
              — long-term (more than 10 years): action 7.
              The costs of the project are summarized, for the next five years, in Table 3.
                                                                 TABLE 1
                                                     Outline of the agriculture project
           Action                  Main orientation         Geographic localization              Input                       Output
1. Regional inventories       Semi-operational            Three to four selected      High-resolution             Precise regional
   (acreage)                                              administrative regions      satellite data              inventories
                                                                                                                  (plus localized
                                                                                                                  statistics)
2. Vegetation conditions      Semi-operational plus       Selected regions and        Low-resolution satellite    Vegetation monitoring,
   and yield indicators       development work            sampling of sites, then     data                        alarm for main crops
                                                          all of Europe               (mainly AVHRR)
3. Models of yield            Development work                                        Low-resolution satellite    Yield prediction
   prediction                                                                         data, high-resolution
                                                                                      satellite data,
                                                                                      meteorological data
4. European rapid             Semi-operational            Sampling of some 40         High-resolution             Estimates of surface
   estimates of acreages                                  or 50 sites throughout      satellite data              prediction of yield at
   and potential yield                                    Europe                                                  European level for
                                                                                                                  main crops
5. Advanced agriculture       Semi-operational and        Sampling of some 40         All data available          Integration of
   information system         development work            or 50 sites throughout                                  preceding methods
                                                          Europe                                                  with conventional ones
6. Area frame sampling        Support for other           Whenever it is needed,      Satellite imagery to        Support documents
   associated surveys         actions                     mainly on three to four     build area frame            data for other actions
                                                          regions and 40 to 50
                                                          sites
7. Long term studies          Development work                                        New satellite data          Improved inventories
                                                                                      (microwaves, etc.)          and yield prediction
                                                                                      New analysis methods
                                                                                      (expert systems, GIS,
                                                                                      etc.)
 ---pagebreak--- 6. 5. 88                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                              N o C 119/9
                                                              TABLE 2
                                                  Methodologies and specific studies
                Action                      Methodology                   Accuracy statements          Specific studies
 1. Regional inventories         Regression estimate                                          Improved classification     and
                                                                                              sampling strategies
2. Vegetation conditions and     Spatial or temporal                Comparison with           — Radiometric plus
    yield indicators             comparison of VI and I            conventional methods           geometric correction
                                 (integrated indices, etc.)                                   — Resolution needed
                                                                                              — Modelling of curves
                                                                                              — Evapotranspiration
3. Models of yield prediction    — Improvement of actual           Comparison with            Special emphasis on wine and
                                     agromet models:               conventional methods       olive production for
                                     — better representation                                  conventional models
                                         of stations
                                     — improving the data
                                 — Integration of satellite
                                     data in agromet models
                                 — Deriving agronomic
                                     parameters (ETR)
                                 — Direct relationship
4. European rapid estimates of   Computer-assisted                 Assessment by specific
    acreages and potential yield photo-interpretation              sampling surveys
5. Advanced agriculture          Integration of all available      Economic comparisons
    information system           results                           between methods
6. Area frame sampling           Stratification-segmentation       Accuracy statements of     — Automated procedures
    associated surveys           sample-surveys on site,           inventories                — Sampling scheme
                                 surveys with farmers                                         — Type of surveys
7. Long-term studies             — Using new sensors with          Comparison of results or
                                     the preceding methods         timeliness
                                 — GIS-expert systems
 ---pagebreak--- No C 119/10                                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                             6. 5. 88
                                                                             TABLE 3
                                                                        Cost of the project
                                                                                                                                            (1 000 ECU)
                             1987                  1988                1989              1990             1991             1992              1993
         Actions               Specific               Specific           Specific          Specific         Specific         Specific          Specific
                     Staff                   Staff               Staff             Staff            Staff            Staff            Staff
                                funds                  funds                                funds                             funds             funds
1                     0,5       1665            3      1 275        3       975       3       975      3       975      3       975      3        900
2                     0,5         800           2        700        2     1 200       2     1 200      2     1 200      2     1 200     2       1 200
3                                               1        300        1       600       1       900      1       900      1       900      1        900
4                                               1        750        1       950       1     1 150      1     1 350      1     1 550      1      1 350
5                                               2        400       2        500       2       600     2        700      2       800     2       1 050
6                                               1                   1                 1                1                1                1
7                                 300                    600                600               600              600              600               600
Coordination
and s u p p o r t      1                       2                   2                  2               2                 2               2
Specific funds         2        2 765         12       4 025      12      4 825     12      5 425    12      5 725    12      6 025    12       6 000
C o s t of staff                  250                  1 500              1 500             1 500            1 500            1 500             1 500
T o t a l cost                  3 015                  5 525              6 325             6 925            7 225            7 525             7 500
Observations: In 1989 the staff cost will figure in item B 730 (new nomenclature).