Soil erosion is a natural process, occurring over geological time, and indeed it is a process that is essential for soil formation in the first place. With respect to soil degradation, most concerns about erosion are related to accelerated erosion, where the natural rate has been significantly increased mostly by human activity. Soil erosion by water is a widespread problem throughout Europe. PESERA (Pan European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment) has been created in order to design a model and to handle spatial and temporal data of variable quality and detail and to enable the impacts of agricultural policy, land use and climate changes to be assessed and monitored across Europe. The Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment - PESERA - uses a process-based and spatially distributed model to quantify soil erosion by water and assess its risk across Europe. This metadata record is adapted from the orginal one received from JRC.

As a permanent service of Eurostat, GISCO: promotes and stimulates the use of GIS within the European Statistical System and the Commission; manages and disseminates the Geographical reference database of the Commission; acts as a reference centre concerning GIS; promotes geo-referencing of statistics and collaboration between national statistical institutes and mapping agencies; pursues and ensures standardisation and harmonisation in the exchange of Geographic Information; co-leads the INSPIRE initiative on the introduction of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure. Within the framework of the GISCO project, an extensive geo-referenced database has been developed. One of the main topics of the GISCO mandate is to extend, maintain and update this database. List of data sets offered by GISCO per ISO 19115 topic category (short name in []): a) Farming: farm accountancy data network [FADN] b) Biota: Natural Vegetation [VEGT], Biogeographical Zones [BIOG], Biotopes [BIOT] c) Boundaries: Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS + Statistical Regions) [NUTS], Communes [COMM], Subcommunes [SCOM], Administrative regions [ADRG], Countries [CNTR] d) Climatology / Meteorology / Atmosphere: Climate [CLIM] e) Economy: Fishing Areas [FISH] f) Elevation: Digital Elevation Model [DEM], Bathimetry [BATH] g) Environment: Land Quality [LNQU], Designated Areas [DSIG] h) Geo-scientific information: Soil Erosion Risk [SOER], Geology Geomorphology ErosionTrend [ERTR], Soil [SOIL], Sediments Discharges [SDDS], Coastal Erosion [COER] i) Imagery/Base maps/Earth cover: Land Cover [LCOV] j) Inland waters: Water Patterns [WTPT], Lakes [LAKE], Watersheds [WTSH] k) Locations: Geographical Grid [GGGR], LUCAS [LUCA], Settlements [STTL], Gazetteer [GAZZ] l) Oceans: Coastline boundaries [COAS], Sea Level rise [SELV] m) Planning/Cadastre: Inter Regional [IREG], Leader Zones [LEAD], Less Favoured Areas [LFAV], National Support [NTSU], Structural Funds Zones [STFU], Urban Audit [URAU] n) Society: Population [POPU], Degree of urbanisation [DGUR] o) Transportation: Airports [AIRP], Ferry links [FERR], Ports [PORT], Road infrastructure [ROAD], Railway infrastructure [RAIL] p) Utilities/Communication: Nuclear Power [NUPW], Energy Production [ENPR], Energy Transport [ENTR] Further details can be found in gisco_naming_conventions_20090831.pdf