| About EFDAC |
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Success in the conception, development, implementation, monitoring and further improvement of environmental policies depends crucially on the availability of robust data on the state of the environment, pressures, impacts and responses.
In order to ensure the provision of such data DG ENV, DG ESTAT, DG JRC, and EEA have agreed to establish "European Data Centers" as a joint system for the provision of data and information in some of the most important environmental fields, and decided on principles for the sharing of responsibilities. Following the Technical Arrangement that has been signed by the Group of 4 in November 2005, the JRC acts as data centre for soil (European Soil Data Center - ESDAC ) and forestry (European Forest Data Center - EFDAC). The specific goal of EFDAC is to become a single focal point for policy relevant forest data and information by hosting and pointing to relevant forest products (including datasets, documents, services and other types of information such as maps and graphs, plots or statistical data) and by providing web-based tools for accessing and updating information located in EFDAC.
Starting from available data within IES and the other Commission services, EFDAC initially concentrates on providing an infrastructure for hosting of data collected under umbrella of EU forest related regulations and providing access to existing forest databases in the EC and the Member States. The EFDAC currently is composed of thematic applications: Metadata Catalogue, Forest Maps/Patterns & Forest Condition (Map Viewer), European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), European Forest Resources (Map Viewer) and Dominant Tree Species Distribution & Species Habitat Suitability (Map Viewer). The brief description of the following applications is provided below.
The Metadata Catalogue is the one of the main EFDAC application targeted to the search of the forest related information available at JRC. The technical platform for Metadata Catalogue management consists of a lightweight system that allows users through  the web to browse and search for forest resources information from the metadata catalogue. The metadata catalogue is being populated with metadata of JRC in-house data and build around a metadata model that, for geo-spatial data, is compliant with INSPIRE specifications. The metadata management interface gives the user the possibility to search metadata by forest subthemes or resources types. Through the metadata record the user can directly access the data source (in case the use of original data is not restricted).
The Metadata Catalogue is being constantly updated and populated with the new information. In order to access the application use the left menu. Top FOREST MAPS / PATTERNS & FOREST CONDITION (MAP VIEWER)
This thematic Map Viewer allows to navigate and query the European forest maps and datasets that are made accessible through EFDAC. The application is the component of the European Forest Data Centre (EFDAC) and has been designed to support the access to the forest related map products stored at JRC.
In order to access the application use the left menu.
EUROPEAN FOREST FIRE INFORMATION SYSTEM (EFFIS)
The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) has been established by the Joint Research Centre (JRC)
The core of EFFIS consists of a scientific and technical infrastructure at the JRC doing research on forest fires and operating a web based platform. In addition EFFIS is supported by a network of Experts on Forest Fires from 22 EU countries that meet regularly with the EC services.
Other than the on-line web based system, a huge EU fire database is maintained within EFFIS; furthermore, reports on forest fires in Europe are produced yearly.
Along the main fire season (June to September), maps of forecasted fire danger are emailed daily to forest services and civil protection services of EU, fire statistics for the on going fire season are exchanged quarterly and newsletters are issued monthly. In addition the EFFIS team at JRC responds to ad hoc requests of specific assessments during major forest fire crisis in EU.
EFFIS development and operation are currently performed by a group of researchers and technicians at the JRC. In order to access EFFIS use the left menu.
EUROPEAN FOREST RESOURCES (MAP VIEWER)
The European Forest Resources application (Map Viewer) is the thematic application of the EFDAC which allows the user to visualize, navigate and query the European forest resources thematic maps and datasets. The datasets that are currently handled by the application can be viewed and navigated according to set of predefined forest indicators: forest area, ownership, forest type, age structure and growing stock.
The datasets for forest resources thematic maps are derived from National Forest Inventories (NFI) and MCPFE aggregating
The summary table of available data by countries and forest indicators handled by this application, can be downloaded here (table in pdf format). Please take the note that the data derived from NFI are not harmonized and are based on national definitions.
In order to access the application use the left menu.
TREE SPECIES MAPS & SPECIES HABITAT SUITABILITY (Map Viewer)
The application (the customized web map service) allows the user to visualize, navigate and download dominant tree species distribution as well as actual and future species habitat suitability maps of 30 main tree species according to the different climate model projections (CCCMA, CSIRO, HADCM3, ENS), scenarios and year (2000, 2020, 2050, 2080). The available maps characterize forest habitat distribution under future climatic change scenarios. Point surface interpolation methods and suitability distribution models are applied to map:
In order to access the application use the left menu.
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 February 2010 10:12 |
and the Directorate General for Environment (DG ENV) of the European Commission (EC) to support the services in charge of the protection of forests against fires in the EU and neighbor countries, and also to provide the EC services and the European Parliament with information on forest fires in Europe. 
the original data at different administrative levels (from country level to NUTS 3).