Pilot Projects 
• Urban Statistics 
A Environment 
+ Agriculture 
above. The specific applications were based on this 
basic data set, e.g. the assessment of the impact on 
the environment of a planned high-speed train 
railroad in the Rhone valley, the dynamics of the 
urbanised areas at the 'Grand Estuaire Normand' in 
France or the harmonised delimitation of urban 
agglomerations in Europe on several test sites 
spread over Europe. 
2.4 Operational activities 
Regarding operational work, CESD LU provides 
technical assistance to statistical services in the field 
of land use statistics, remote sensing and 
geographic information systems technologies. The 
expertise provided on a short term basis concerns 
the definition of projects as well as the follow-up and 
the evaluation of the processes. Currently a GIS 
project at the Central Administration for Statistics in 
Lebanon is supported in the framework of statistical 
co-operation. In Greece and in Malta, projects on 
the improvement of land use statistics using earth 
observation data will be launched in due course with 
technically supported by CESD LU. 
Concerning the implementation of projects / surveys 
on an operational basis, CESD Communautaire is 
founding member, together with the Statistical 
Service of the French Ministry of Agriculture 
(SCEES) and the Information Centre of the Finnish 
Ministry of Agriculture (TIKE), of Landsis g.e.i.e., an 
organisation that has the status of an European 
Economic Interest Grouping. The grouping created 
in 1998 constitutes an execution tool able to 
intervene efficiently in the fields of agriculture 
statistics, rural development, environment and 
regional planning within and outside the European 
Union. Its main objective is to contribute to statistical 
harmonisation through the execution of studies, 
statistical work and operational projects. To achieve 
this objective Landsis provides the adequate 
services and develops the necessary tools. It brings 
together national statistical entities or entities whose 
activities are related to the European Statistical 
Information System. Currently Landsis g.e.i.e. is 
implementing an operational land use statistical 
survey in Bulgaria. 
3 OUTLOOK 
Regarding the future, the EU Commission together 
with other relevant institutions, e.g. the EEA, 
national statistical services, has plans for the 
collection of land cover / use data following the two 
possible approaches. A closer co-ordination of the 
different services will lead to higher efficiency in the 
exploitation of existing information systems and data 
sets. Regarding data collection, the EEA is planning 
to update the CORINE Land Cover database by