programme consists in activities aiming at 
awareness raising of statisticians and the different 
user groups, in studies on statistical methods and in 
operational activities. Most of these activities are 
carried out within the framework of technical and 
methodological support to Eurostat. 
2.1 Awareness raising activities 
Objective of activities such as seminars, workshops 
and publications is to raise the awareness of the 
different players in the field for the various problems 
regarding land cover and land use information. 
Conferences and workshops bring together 
researchers and experts from different disciplines 
with practitioners and statisticians and enable 
discussions from the different view angles. The 
exchange of information of the problems and the 
solutions applied by the different groups and in the 
different countries supports the development 
towards compatible procedures and accepted best 
practise. Publications contribute to the debate by 
setting the scene and provoking reactions from the 
concerned target audience. 
2.1.1 Organisation of seminars and workshops 
In the framework of the support to Eurostat, 
international conferences were organised to discuss 
about The impact of remote sensing on the 
European statistical information system': a first one 
in 1992 in Bad Neuenahr (Germany) and a follow-up 
seminar in Rome 1995. As conclusion of the Bad 
Neuenahr seminar, Eurostat defined a work 
programme on remote sensing and statistics. CESD 
was entrusted with its execution. 
The Esquilino seminar held 1995 in Rome 
presented the results of this work programme, 
including presentations of pilot project activities 
using remote sensing in conjunction with other 
sources to derive data on land use. One of the 
conference conclusions drawn by Eurostat was to 
focus now on land cover / land use statistics in 
general. 
Two workshops focussed on the use of new 
technologies such as remote sensing and 
geographic information systems for statistical 
purposes: a workshop held 1995 in Porto was 
concentrated on agriculture and forestry statistics 
and another one held in 1996 in Lille on spatial 
planning and urban statistics. 
The most recent conference with participation of 
national and international experts in the field of 
agriculture, the environment, regional planning, 
remote sensing from operational institutions and 
research organisations was organised in 1998 in 
Luxembourg at the premises of Eurostat. Concrete 
conclusions of the discussions were to create an 
inter-institutional working group with the members 
from different services of the European 
Commission, the EEA and the DG JRC, to produce 
a 'Manual of concepts' on land use information and 
to maintain and further elaborate the database 
containing meta-information on land use information 
systems in Europe. CESD-LU is entrusted with the 
work on the Manual of Concepts and the meta 
database. 
2.1.2 The LANES concerted action 
In the framework of the European Commission's 4 th 
programme on research and development, CESD 
LU carried out a concerted action on the 
'Development of a harmonised framework for multi 
purpose land cover / land use information systems 
derived from earth observation data - LANES'. A 
network of 26 European organisations representing 
different user groups of EO data (from universities 
and the private sector) and data producers (space 
agencies and the EO industry) as well as statistical 
services has been organised by CESD LU. Working 
papers on the problems of nomenclatures and data 
integration have been produced and discussed 
during 2 workshops, held in Luxembourg and Rome. 
Conclusions and recommendations consist in the 
development of a common terminology on land 
cover and land use information, the development of 
a Best Practice guide for data integration, 
development of the classifier approach for 
comparing existing nomenclatures and to continue 
the multi-disciplinary dialogue that was launched 
with LANES. The conference organised by Eurostat 
in Luxembourg in 1998 resulted by that 
recommendation. 
2.1.3 Manual of concepts 
The discussions held in conferences and workshops 
recommended to work on the problem of 
understanding the terminology used by different 
expert groups. A 'Manual of Concepts on land cover 
and land use information' contributes to that 
objective. CESD LU produces this document that 
will be presented and discussed at the next Eurostat 
working party on land use statistics, foreseen in May 
2000. 
2.1.4 Inventory of existing information systems: 
MISOLU 
As mentioned above many information systems 
concerned with information about land cover and 
land use exist in Europe. To enable assessment of 
the potential for harmonisation and eventual 
integration of data the conceptual and technical 
specifications of the different system have to be 
analysed in detail. The first step in such an analysis 
is to gather information about the information 
systems - so-called meta data. In 1996 the 
collection of meta data about information systems in 
Europe started and has been continued up to now. 
The meta data is stored in a database implemented