On 25 March, over 230 local leaders gathered online to learn about the baselines and data necessary for urban ecosystem restoration. The webinar, hosted by the Greening Cities Partnership and Eurocities, examined key questions on how cities and regions should assess and define urban ecosystem restoration baselines. Experts discussed key definitions, demonstrated useful tools, and provided case studies to show what works.

The webinar was based on requirements set out in Article 8 of the Nature Restoration Regulation. In relation to urban ecosystem restoration targets, the law sets out that, “Member States shall ensure that there is no net loss in the total national area of urban green space and of urban tree canopy cover in urban ecosystem areas compared to 2024.”

Access the PowerPoint presentation, watch the webinar recording and read key takeaways below.

Learn more and register for the upcoming Nature Restoration Regulation webinars.

Find more tips on how to implement the Nature Restoration Regulation.

Defining Restoration Boundaries

Implementation timeline

August 2024: Regulation already in force*
August 2026: Member States submit draft National Restoration Plan
January 2027: Assessment by the European Commission
August 2027: Member States submit final National Restoration Plan

*Under this timeline, there should be no net loss in green space or tree canopy cover between 2024 and 2030. If cities experience loss, they must build back their green space to meet the 2024 level. The easiest way to ensure success is to implement a rule, whether it be at the state, regional, or local level, to ensure there is no net loss of green space during urban planning. After 2030, Member States shall achieve an increasing trend in total national area of urban green space and in area per urban ecosystem area of tree canopy cover until a satisfactory level (to be defined by the European Commission and Member States) is reached.

National Restoration Plans

National Restoration Plans will be based on a standard format, and they will include measures for achieving the Nature Restoration Law targets, including those for urban restoration. The Plans must include measures, who is responsible, as well as how these will be financed. These Plans will be drafted based on a template, which has been agreed upon by Member States. The uniform format will be available here.

Understanding Local Administrative Units, urban centers, and urban clusters

There are three territorial typologies used as building blocks to define the urban ecosystem area in the NRL: Local Administrative Units (LAUs), Degree of Urbanisation, and urban centres and urban clusters.

Local Administrative Units: an administrative boundary established between the Member State and EUROSTAT every year. The 2023 data is currently available, and 2024 data will be available over the course of 2025.

Degree of Urbanisation: LAUs are classified as cities*, towns and suburbs, and rural areas.

Cities: LAUs where at least 50% of the population lives in one or more urban centres.

Towns and suburbs: LAUs where less than 50% of the population lives in an urban centre, but at least 50% of the population lives in an urban cluster.

Rural areas: thinly populated areas: more than 50% of the population lives in rural grid cells.

Urban centres and urban clusters: Urban centres and urban clusters are groups of 1km2 population grid cells that share similar characteristics, based on a combination of their population density and geographical contiguity. The data is based on the census and set by EUROSTAT every ten years. It is the final dataset that must be used for NRR implementation.

*Aggregating LAUs: some cities and metropolitan areas, like the Brussels Capital Region, are made up of many small LAUs. Brussels is made up of 19 communes, each of which is a LAU, but they also have a single administrative unit (the Brussels Capital Region). In this case, the city can combine the LAUs into a single unit so that they can work together as an urban ecosystem area.

Useful manual: Methodological manual on territorial typologies, published by Eurostat.

Urban ecosystem areas must be identified by the Member State to address the targets of Article 8. There are two options for selecting urban ecosystem areas:

Entire cities/towns and suburbs: the entire city or town and suburb must be mapped and reported. For example, in Belgium, the urban ecosystem area would represent 54% of the country surface would be covered, and 66.2% of the LAU would be covered.

Type of urban ecosystem area: parts of the city or the town and suburbs, including at least its urban centres and urban clusters. Thus, the Member State would be concentrating its efforts only where cells of urban centres and clusters are located. If deemed appropriate by the Member State, it can include peri-urban areas (adjacent areas within 1 kilometer).

Member States may aggregate the urban ecosystem areas of two or more adjacent cities, or two or more adjacent towns and suburbs, or both, into one urban ecosystem area common to those cities, or town and suburbs, respectively.

Is it possible to change between using LAUs and Urban Center/Clusters in an updated version of a National Restoration Plan?

According to the regulation, Member States delineate their urban ecosystem areas based on the appropriate boundaries. In 2030, there will be a review of the National Restoration Plans. If there is a good reason for a Plan’s system to be changed, it could be possible, but this is not certain. What is certain is that, from 2024 to 2030, the urban ecosystem areas are fixed. Member States should create their urban ecosystem boundaries with the intention to use them until the NRPs are reviewed.

What are the exclusions included within the regulation?

For urban ecosystem areas in which the share or urban green space in the urban centres and urban clusters exceeds 45%, and the share of urban tree canopy cover exceeds 10%, a Member State may choose to exclude the area. However, these exclusions apply only until 2030. There will be no exclusions after 2030. The European Commission has a list of LAUs that could qualify for exclusion and will communicate with the Member States when the most recent data becomes available.

Measuring urban green space and tree canopy cover: EU satellite and local level data

For member states to develop their National Restoration Plans, they must measure their green space and canopy cover. The regulation states that Copernicus data must be used for this purpose with a focus on land cover, not land use

For example, a portion of land could be classified as gray space; however, if it is covered in green, it is subject to regulation. Similarly, the regulation does not distinguish between private and public land- it simply distinguishes green space from non-green space. Therefore, any permanently green, vegetated land is included under the NRR. Arable land (for example, land that is plowed), is not included.

Currently, the most updated Copernicus data available for green space and tree canopy is 2021 and 2018, respectively. However, updated Copernicus data for urban green spaces and tree canopy will become available throughout the rest of the year. 2023 data (will be available Q2 2025) should be used as the baseline year for urban green space data. 2024 data (will be available between Q4 2025 – Q2 2026) should be used as the baseline year for tree canopy data. Until this data is available, local leaders may use the latest available versions.

Two datasets produced at the EU level for urban green space and urban tree canopy cover

Urban green space: CLCplus Backbone 2021 (raster 10 m). Most recent data will be available in Q2 2025.

Urban tree canopy cover: High Resolution Layer Tree Cover Density. Most recent data will be available between Q4 2025 – Q2 2026.

Case study: implementing Article 8 in the Brussels-Capital Region

As an example of the process that cities need to undertake to identify their urban green space and tree cover, the Brussels-Capital Region is working to compare EU Copernicus satellite data (currently available and based on 2021 green space data) with their local data. In this comparison, Brussels’ local data allows for an increase in precision and accuracy and adds an interesting layer to the discussion on exemptions. Using solely Copernicus data, Brussels meets the 10% share of tree canopy required for an exemption but does not meet the 45% share of urban green space. However, using local data, 10 LAUs meet both targets and 9 LAUs do not. The city is currently working to assess what this will mean in practice.

Another challenge for the Brussels-Capital Region is to understand which boundary to use in the implementation of the urban targets (Article 8). As an administrative region, Brussels is composed of nineteen local administrative units, each of which is classified as a city. Rather than work as nineteen separate units, Brussels is considering combining the 19 LAUs into a single administrative unit.

The potential for EU satellite data for monitoring quality of green space and tree canopy cover in cities: RetreevAlble

The Netherlands Space Office (NSO) is funding the Satelliet Data Portaal to support national-scale monitoring. The Portaal provides free, centralised access to high-resolution, multispectral images for all municipalities and provinces. The data has broad applications for vegetation monitoring, water quality, carbon assessment, air quality, infrastructure, and more.

The country also has a nationwide digital elevation model called Actueel Hoogte Bestand (AHN), based on the airborne laser instrument LiDAR. This data is essential for water system and flood defence mechanism, and it can also be used for detailed vegetation monitoring.

The goal of the RetreevAIble project is to create a tree data and analytics platform that helps policymakers make data-driven decisions by providing insights into tree species, vegetation distribution, carbon sequestration, canopy cover, and tree health. Using geoinformation from NSO, LiDAR, and Amsterdam’s tree database, researchers trained AI models to predict tree species and identify tree health. Efforts like these could guide regreening efforts in cities like Amsterdam.

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