Basic vector map of Europe, the Isohypses are produced by using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union - EU-DEM layers. The bodies of water are based on data from naturalearthdata.com. {"references": ["https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eu-dem#tab-european-data", "http://www.naturalearthdata.com/"]}

This file contains European countries in a shapefile format that can be used in python, R or matlab. The file has been created by Drin Marmullaku based on GADM version 4.1 (https://gadm.org/) and distributed according to their license (https://gadm.org/license.html).

Please cite as: Sevdari, Kristian; Marmullaku, Drin (2023). Shapefile of European countries. Technical University of Denmark. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.11583/DTU.23686383 This dataset is distributed under a CCBY-NC-SA 4.0 license

Using the data to create maps for publishing of academic research articles is allowed. Thus you can use the maps you made with GADM data for figures in articles published by PLoS, Springer Nature, Elsevier, MDPI, etc. You are allowed (but not required) to publish these articles (and the maps they contain) under an open license such as CC-BY as is the case with PLoS journals and may be the case with other open access articles. Data for the following countries is covered by a a different license Austria: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 (source: Government of Austria)

Annual land cover mapping for continental Europe based on Ensemble Machine Learning (EML), samples obtained from LUCAS (Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey) and CLC (CORINE Land Cover) Maps, and several harmonized raster layers (e.g. GLAD Landsat ARD imagery and Continental EU DTM). The EML predicted the dominant land cover, probabilities and uncertainties for 33 classes compatible with CLC over 20 years (2000–2019), and was implemented in R and Python (eumap library).

The raster layers were mainly composed by the GLAD Landsat ARD imagery, which were downloaded for the years 1999 to 2020 considering the Continental Europe extent (land mask area and tiling system), screened to reduce cloud cover (GLAD quality assessment band), aggregated by season according with three different quantiles (i.e. 25th, 50th and 75th), and gap-filled using the Temporal Moving Window Median approach available in the eumap library. The images for each season were selected using the same calendar dates for all period:

• Winter: December 2 of previous year until March 20 of current year
• Spring: March 21 until June 24 of current year
• Summer: June 25 until September 12 of current year
• Fall: September 13 until December 1 of current year

In addition to Landsat spectral data, the EML considered night lights (VIIRS/SUOMI NPP), Global surface water frequency, Continental EU DTM, Landsat spectral indices (SAVI, NDVI, NBR, NBR2, REI and NDWI) and the max/min. monthly geometric temperature, estimated on a pixel basis and for each month.

The training data were obtained from the geographic location of LUCAS (in-situ source) and the centroid of all polygons of CORINE (supplementary source), harmonized according to the 33 CLC and organized by year, where each unique combination of longitude, latitude and year was treated as a independent sample with the following classes (the class descriptions are here):

• 111: Urban fabric
• 122: Road and rail networks and associated land
• 123: Port areas
• 124: Airports
• 131: Mineral extraction sites
• 132: Dump sites
• 133: Construction sites
• 141: Green urban areas
• 211: Non-irrigated arable land
• 212: Permanently irrigated arable land
• 213: Rice fields
• 221: Vineyards
• 222: Fruit trees and berry plantations
• 223: Olive groves
• 231: Pastures
• 311: Broad-leaved forest
• 312: Coniferous forest
• 321: Natural grasslands
• 322: Moors and heathland
• 323: Sclerophyllous vegetation
• 324: Transitional woodland-shrub
• 331: Beaches, dunes, sands
• 332: Bare rocks
• 333: Sparsely vegetated areas
• 334: Burnt areas
• 335: Glaciers and perpetual snow
• 411: Inland wetlands
• 421: Maritime wetlands
• 511: Water courses
• 512: Water bodies
• 521: Coastal lagoons
• 522: Estuaries
• 523: Sea and ocean

The LUCAS points with a unique land cover class received a confidence rating of 100%, while CORINE points received 85%, values which were considered by EML as sample weight in the training phase. The points were used in a spacetime overlay approach, which considered the location and the year to retrieve the pixel values of all rasters. Some specific land cover samples (i.e. 111, 122, 131, 141, 211, 221, 222, 223, 231, 311, 312, 321, 411, 512) were screened according to convergence with pre-existing mapping products (OSM roads, OSM railways and Copernicus-OSM buildings; Copernicus high resolution layers), where, for example, “111: Urban fabric” samples located in low density building areas (> 50% according to Copernicus-OSM building layer) were removed from the final training data ( ~5.3 million samples and 178 covariates/features).

Using this training data, three ML models were trained to predict probabilities (i.e. Random Forest, XGBoost, Artificial Neural Network), which served as input to train a linear meta-model (i.e. Logistic regression classifier), responsable for predicting the final land cover probabilities of all classes. The hyperparameter optimization was conducted using a 5-fold spatial cross validation, based on a 30x30km tilling system. The uncertainties were calculated for all classes according to the standard deviation of the three predicted probabilities for each pixel, and the highest probability was selected as the dominant land cover class, resulting in 20 annual maps for continental Europe.

The training samples, covariates/features and fitted models are available through lcv_landcover.hcl_lucas.corine.eml_p_landmapper_full.lz4, a LandMapper class instance that can be loaded by eumap library (check the code demonstration). The production code used to generate the current version of the annual land cover maps is available in the spatial layer repository and considered a lighter LandMapper class instance (lcv_landcover.hcl_lucas.corine.eml_p_landmapper_light.lz4,), which not includes the training samples.

Only the dominant land cover classes are provided here. To access the probabilities and uncertainties use:

• Open Data Science Europe viewer: https://maps.opendatascience.eu
• S3 Cloud Object Service: https://medium.com/swlh/europe-from-above-space-time-machine-learning-reveals-our-changing-environment-1b05cb7be520

A publication describing, in detail, all processing steps, accuracy assessment and general analysis of land-cover changes in continental Europe is under preparation. To suggest any improvement/fix use https://gitlab.com/geoharmonizer_inea/spatial-layers/-/issues

This Digital Terrain Model (DTM) for Continental Europe was derived using Ensemble Machine Learning (EML) with publicly available Digital Surface Models. EML was trained using GEDI level 2B points (Level 2A; "elev_lowestmode") and ICESat-2 (ATL08; "h_te_mean"). About 9 million points were overlaid vs MERITDEM, AW3D30, GLO-30, EU DEM, GLAD canopy height, tree cover and surface water cover maps. An ensemble prediction model (mlr package in R) was fitted using random forest, Cubist and GLM, and used to predict the most probable terrain height (bare earth).

The predicted elevations are based on the GEDI data hence the reference water surface (WGS84 ellipsoid) is about 43 m higher than the sea water surface for a specific EU country. Before modeling, reference elevations were corrected to the Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM2008) by using the 5-arcdegree resolution correction surface (Pavlis et al, 2012).

Details on the work to create this dataset can be found here:

• Hengl, Tomislav, Leal Parente, Leandro, Krizan, Josip, and Bonannella, Carmelo. 2020. "Continental Europe Digital Terrain Model at 30 M Resolution Based on GEDI, Icesat-2, AW3D, GLO-30, EUDEM, MERIT DEM and Background Layers." Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4724549.
• European Digital Terrain Models (EU DTM)

NOTE:This dataset has been converted from its original units of decimeters to meters to aid comparisons with other datasets in the OpenTopography catalog.

Note: updates to this beta layer are currently paused while we sync new versions of the OSM layers for Europe.This feature layer provides access to OpenStreetMap (OSM) highways data for Europe, which is updated every 5 minutes with the latest edits. This hosted feature layer view is referencing a hosted feature layer of OSM line (way) data in ArcGIS Online that is updated with minutely diffs from the OSM planet file. This feature layer view includes highway features defined as a query against the hosted feature layer (i.e. highway is not blank).In OSM, a highway describes any kind of motorway, road, street or path. These features are identified with a highway tag. There are hundreds of different tag values for highway used in the OSM database. In this feature layer, unique symbols are used for several of the most popular highway types, while lesser used types are grouped in an "other" category.Zoom in to large scales (e.g. Streets level or 1:20k scale) to see the highway features display. You can click on a feature to get the name of the highway (if available). The name of the highway will display by default at large scales (e.g. Street level of 1:5k scale). Labels can be turned off in your map if you prefer.Create New LayerIf you would like to create a more focused version of this highway layer displaying just one or two highway types, you can do that easily! Just add the layer to a map, copy the layer in the content window, add a filter to the new layer (e.g. highway is path), rename the layer as appropriate, and save layer. You can also change the layer symbols or popup if you like. Esri may publish a few such layers (e.g. cycleway and pedestrian) that are ready to use, but not for every type of highway.Important Note: if you do create a new layer, it should be provided under the same Terms of Use and include the same Credits as this layer. You can copy and paste the Terms of Use and Credits info below in the new Item page as needed.

This metadata refers to the HRL Forest 2018 primary status layer Dominant Leaf Type (DLT). The DLT raster product provides a basic land cover classification with 3 thematic classes (all non-tree covered areas, broadleaved and coniferous) at 10m spatial resolution and covers the full of EEA38 area and the United Kingdom. The production of the High Resolution Forest layers was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme.

The HRL Forest product consists of 3 types of (status) products and additional change products. The status products are available for 2012, 2015, and 2018 reference years: 1. Tree cover density (TCD) (level of tree cover density in a range from 0-100%) 2. Dominant leaf type (DLT) (broadleaved or coniferous majority) 3. Forest type product (FTY). The forest type product allows to get as close as possible to the FAO forest definition. In its original (10m (2018) / 20m (2012, 2015)) resolution it consists of two products: a dominant leaf type product that has a MMU of 0.5 ha, as well as a 10% tree cover density threshold applied, and 2) a support layer that maps (now only available on demand), based on the dominant leaf type product, trees under agricultural use and in urban context (derived from CLC and imperviousness 2009 data). For the final 100 m product trees under agricultural use and urban context from the support layer are removed. NEW for 2018: the 10m 2018 reference year FTY product now also has the agricultural/urban trees removed. In the past this was done only for the 100m product, now it is consistently applied for both the 10m and the 100m FTY products.

This dataset is provided as 10 meter rasters (fully conformant with the EEA reference grid) in 100 x 100 km tiles grouped according to the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom.

You can find more information about the product here: https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/high-resolution-layer-dominant-leaf-type/dominant-leaf-type-2018.

This layer is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data.

Note: updates to this beta layer are currently paused while we sync new versions of the OSM layers for Europe.This feature layer provides access to OpenStreetMap (OSM) buildings data for Europe, which is updated every 5 minutes with the latest edits. This hosted feature layer view is referencing a hosted feature layer of OSM polygon (closed way) data in ArcGIS Online that is updated with minutely diffs from the OSM planet file. This feature layer view includes building features defined as a query against the hosted feature layer (i.e. building is not blank).In OSM, a building is a man-made structure with a roof, standing more or less permanently in one place. These features are identified with a building tag. There are thousands of different tag values for building used in the OSM database. In this feature layer, unique symbols are used for several of the most popular building types, while lesser used types are grouped in an "other" category.Zoom in to large scales (e.g. Streets level or 1:10k scale) to see the building features display. You can click on a feature to get the name of the building (if available). The name of the building will display by default at large scales (e.g. Street level of 1:5k scale). Labels can be turned off in your map if you prefer.Create New LayerIf you would like to create a more focused version of this buildings layer displaying just one or two building types, you can do that easily! Just add the layer to a map, copy the layer in the content window, add a filter to the new layer (e.g. building is apartments), rename the layer as appropriate, and save layer. You can also change the layer symbols or popup if you like. Esri may publish a few such layers (e.g. parks) that are ready to use, but not for every type of building.Important Note: if you do create a new layer, it should be provided under the same Terms of Use and include the same Credits as this layer. You can copy and paste the Terms of Use and Credits info below in the new Item page as needed.

This layer is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data.

Note: updates to this beta layer are currently paused while we sync new versions of the OSM layers for Europe.This feature layer provides access to OpenStreetMap (OSM) waterways data for Europe, which is updated every 15 minutes with the latest edits. This hosted feature layer view is referencing a hosted feature layer of OSM line (way) data in ArcGIS Online that is updated with minutely diffs from the OSM planet file. This feature layer view includes waterway features defined as a query against the hosted feature layer (i.e. waterway is not blank).In OSM, a waterway describes rivers, streams and ditches with a flow of water from one place to another. These features are identified with a waterway tag. There are hundreds of different tag values for waterway used in the OSM database. In this feature layer, unique symbols are used for several of the most popular waterway types, while lesser used types are grouped in an "other" category.Zoom in to large scales (e.g. City level or 1:80k scale) to see the waterway features display. You can click on a feature to get the name of the waterway (if available). The name of the waterway will display by default at large scales (e.g. Street level of 1:5k scale). Labels can be turned off in your map if you prefer.Create New LayerIf you would like to create a more focused version of this waterway layer displaying just one or two waterway types, you can do that easily! Just add the layer to a map, copy the layer in the content window, add a filter to the new layer (e.g. waterway is dam), rename the layer as appropriate, and save layer. You can also change the layer symbols or popup if you like. Esri may publish a few such layers (e.g. streams and rivers) that are ready to use, but not for every type of waterway.Important Note: if you do create a new layer, it should be provided under the same Terms of Use and include the same Credits as this layer. You can copy and paste the Terms of Use and Credits info below in the new Item page as needed.

Note: updates to this beta layer are currently paused while we sync new versions of the OSM layers for Europe.This feature layer provides access to OpenStreetMap (OSM) address point data for Europe, which is updated every 5 minutes with the latest edits. This hosted feature layer view is referencing a hosted feature layer of OSM point (node) data in ArcGIS Online that is updated with minutely diffs from the OSM planet file. This feature layer view includes amenities, shops and other point features that have detailed address data, defined as a query against the hosted feature layer (i.e. addr:housenumber and addr:street is not blank).Zoom in to large scales (e.g. Neighborhood level or 1:20k scale) to see the address features display. You can click on a feature to get the name of the feature (if available). The name of the feature will display by default at large scales (e.g. Street level of 1:5k scale). Labels can be turned off in your map if you prefer.

This layer is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data.

Note: updates to this beta layer are currently paused while we sync new versions of the OSM layers for Europe.This feature layer provides access to OpenStreetMap (OSM) shops data for Europe, which is updated every 5 minutes with the latest edits. This hosted feature layer view is referencing a hosted feature layer of OSM point (node) data in ArcGIS Online that is updated with minutely diffs from the OSM planet file. This feature layer view includes shop features defined as a query against the hosted feature layer (i.e. shop is not blank).In OSM, a shop is a place selling retail products or services, such as a supermarket, bakery, or florist. These features are identified with a shop tag. There are thousands of different tag values for shop used in the OSM database. In this feature layer, unique symbols are used for several of the most popular shop types, while lesser used types are grouped in an "other" category.Zoom in to large scales (e.g. Neighborhood level or 1:80k scale) to see the shop features display. You can click on the feature to get the name of the shop. The name of the shop will display by default at very large scales (e.g. Building level of 1:2k scale). Labels can be turned off in your map if you prefer.Create New LayerIf you would like to create a more focused version of this shop layer displaying just one or two shop types, you can do that easily! Just add the layer to a map, copy the layer in the content window, add a filter to the new layer (e.g. shop is jewelry), rename the layer as appropriate, and save layer. You can also change the layer symbols or popup if you like. Esri may publish a few such layers (e.g. supermarket or convenience shop) that are ready to use, but not for every type of shop.Important Note: if you do create a new layer, it should be provided under the same Terms of Use and include the same Credits as this layer. You can copy and paste the Terms of Use and Credits info below in the new Item page as needed.

The High Resolution Layer Forest Additional Support Layer (FADSL) provides information on trees under agricultural use or in urban context to be excluded from the Forest Type (FTY) product and at 10m spatial resolution. The derivation of Forest Additional Support Layer (FADSL) is based on the spatial intersection of the 10m DLT and TCD layers with CORINE Land Cover (CLC) 2018 and HRL Imperviousness Degree 2018 with 10 m spatial resolution; TCD range of ≥ 10-100%; with a MMW of 10m and no MMU (pixel base).

This dataset is provided on a 3-yearly frequency in 10 meter rasters (fully conformant with the EEA reference grid) in 100 x 100 km tiles covering the EEA38 countries.

High Resolution Layer Tree Cover and Forest product is part of the European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service.

This dataset includes data from the French Overseas Territories (DOMs)

The Urban Atlas provides pan-European comparable land use and land cover data for Functional Urban Areas (FUA) across EEA38 countries (EU, EFTA, Western Balkan countries as well as Türkiye) and United Kingdom. The Street Tree Layer (STL) is a separate layer from the Urban Atlas 2018 LU/LC layer produced within the level 1 urban mask for each FUA. It includes contiguous rows or a patches of trees covering 500 m² or more and with a minimum width of 10 meter over 'Artificial surfaces' (nomenclature class 1) inside FUA (i.e. rows of trees along the road network outside urban areas or forest adjacent to urban areas should not be included). Urban Atlas is a joint initiative of the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy and the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme, with the support of the European Space Agency and the European Environment Agency.

The High Resolution Layer (HRL) Forest Type (FTY) 2018 at 100 m spatial resolution is an aggregated version of the FTY layer at 10 m spatial reoslution, fully aligned with the EEA reference grid, and provides a forest classification with 3 thematic classes (all non-forest areas / broadleaved forest / coniferous forest). The dataset is provided as a full mosaic covering EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom. The production of the High Resolution forest layers was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme.

The high resolution forest product consists of three types of (status) products and additional change products. The status products are available for the 2012, 2015 and 2018 reference years: 1. Tree cover density providing level of tree cover density in a range from 0-100%; 2. Dominant leaf type providing information on the dominant leaf type: broadleaved or coniferous; 3. A Forest type product. The forest type product allows to get as close as possible to the FAO forest definition. In its original (20m) resolution it consists of two products: 1) a dominant leaf type product that has a MMU of 0.5 ha, as well as a 10% tree cover density threshold applied, and 2) a support layer that maps, based on the dominant leaf type product, trees under agricultural use and in urban context (derived from CLC and high resolution imperviousness 2009 data). For the final 100m product trees under agricultural use and urban context from the support layer are removed. The high resolution forest change products comprise a simple tree cover density change product for 2012-2015 (% increase or decrease of real tree cover density changes).

You can find more information about the product here: https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/high-resolution-layer-forest-type/forest-type-2018.

This feature layer provides access to OpenStreetMap (OSM) power structure data for Europe, which is updated every 15 minutes with the latest edits. This hosted feature layer view is referencing a hosted feature layer of OSM point data in ArcGIS Online that is updated with minutely diffs from the OSM planet file. This feature layer view includes power structure features defined as a query against the hosted feature layer where power is any of 'tower', 'pole', 'generator','substation', 'portal', 'transformer', or 'plant'.In OSM, electrical power features are mapped using the power tag. There are hundreds of different tag values for power used in the OSM database. In this feature layer, unique symbols are used for various structures such as generators and transformers, while lesser used types are grouped in an "other" category.Zoom in to large scales (e.g. City level or 1:100k scale) to see the power structure features display. You can click on a feature to get the name of the structure (if available). Create New LayerIf you would like to create a more focused version of this power structure layer displaying just one or two structure types, you can do that easily! Just add the layer to a map, copy the layer in the content window, add a filter to the new layer (e.g. power is 'plant'), rename the layer as appropriate, and save layer. You can also change the layer symbols or popup if you like. Important Note: if you do create a new layer, it should be provided under the same Terms of Use and include the same Credits as this layer. You can copy and paste the Terms of Use and Credits info below in the new Item page as needed.

This layer is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data.

Additional Spatial layers derived from the European Soil Database A number of layers for soil properties have been created based on data from the European Soil Database in combination with data from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) and Soil-Terrain Database (SOTER). The available layers include: Total available water content, Depth available to roots, Clay content, Silt content, Sand content, Organic carbon, Bulk Density, Coarse fragments. The layers of soil properties of Soil Typological Units (STUs) are only intended to facilitate modelling purposes. The final result of the modelling activity should be aggregated to SMUs or another larger mapping unit. The derived data have mainly the following features (compared to the past - European Soil Database): Represent a soil property from all STUs pertaining to an SMU in a single raster layer was made by mapping the STUs to geographic positions The attribute data are in part based on the STU table of the ESDB and other data sources : Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD), Soil and Terrain Database (SOTER) The range of parameters is broadened by using Pedo-Transfer Rules (PTRs) to derive estimates of additional parameter Soil Property Topsoil (Filename) Subsoil (Filename) Unit Area of STU allocation STU_EU_ALLOCATE unitless Depth available to roots STU_EU_DEPTH_ROOTS cm Clay content STU_EU_T_CLAY STU_EU_S_CLAY % Sand content STU_EU_T_SAND STU_EU_S_SAND % Silt content STU_EU_T_SILT STU_EU_S_SILT % Organic carbon content STU_EU_T_OC STU_EU_S_OC % Bulk density STU_EU_T_BD STU_EU_S_BD g cm-3 Coarse Fragments STU_EU_T_GRAVEL STU_EU_S_GRAVEL % Total available water content from PTR SMU_EU_T_TAWC SMU_EU_S_TAWC mm Total available water content from PTF STU_EU_T_TAWC STU_EU_S_TAWC mm Access to the data: In order to obtain access to these databases : Fill in the Request form; after which you will receive further instructions how to download the data. References - Porposed Citations Hiederer, R. 2013. Mapping Soil Properties for Europe - Spatial Representation of Soil Database Attributes. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union – 2013 – 47pp. – EUR26082EN Scientific and Technical Research series, ISSN 1831-9424, doi:10.2788/94128 Hiederer, R. 2013. Mapping Soil Typologies - Spatial Decision Support Applied to European Soil Database. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union – 2013 – 147pp. – EUR25932EN Scientific and Technical Research series, ISSN 1831-9424, doi:10.2788/87286 Layer Properties Common properties for the soil property layers are: Format: Idrisi raster format Reference system: ETRS 89 LAEA Rows: 5900 Columns: 4600 Min. X 1500000.0 Max. X 7400000.0 Min. Y 900000.0 Max. Y 5500000.0 Resolution: 1000.0 Reference unit: meter Comments - Notes on to use of soil property layers Comments on to use of soil property layers from spatially allocating soil typological units (STU) of the European Soil Database (ESDB): Spatial layers on key soil properties for the topsoil and subsoil with pan-European coverage are derived from the spatial allocation of STUs. STUs are only allocated to 1km grid cells for those areas where suitable data exist to perform a multi-criteria evaluation and land allocation. In other areas the properties of the dominant STUs are mapped. The area where STUs are allocated is provided as a binary layer. The layers of soil properties of STUs are intended to facilitate modelling requirements by making the complete range of data for a soil mapping unit (SMU) available in a single layer. The procedure used to spatially allocate STU properties to 1km grid cells does not estimate the property of that grid cell, but is the likely distribution of all STUs of a soil mapping unit (SMU) within the spatial and thematic limits of that unit. Users should be aware that the correlation between the soil properties of a grid location with point data from ground surveys may be very low. The final result of the modelling activity should be aggregated to SMUs or another larger mapping unit. It is generally not recommended to aggregate soil properties to larger spatial units by averaging the property values first and then using the average values as input for models. Special note for depth: The depth layer included in the data set is the "depth to obstacles to roots" derived from the ESDB depth classes recorded in the field [ROO.ST_SGDBE]. For organic soils in Sweden the field contains only code 4 (Obstacle to roots between 20 and 40 cm depth). The depth value for this class is set to 30cm. As a consequence, the subsoil layers for organi9c carbon and bulk density only contain mineral soils. The layer is not suitable to calculate soil organic carbon density other than the topsoil. To compute this parameter the required soil properties (depth, organic carbon content, bulk density and gravel content) should be available for the depth of the soil. Special note for peat: The soil texture data contains texture values as provided by the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) V.1.2.1. The HWSD provides texture values also for most typological units classified as peat. In the ESDB pedo-transfer rule (PTR) 22 is used to identify peat. The conditions defining the PTR are purely based on the soil classification name (taxonomy). Data of organic carbon content of the HWSD do not fully correspond to the results of using PTR 22. For example, Histo-Humic Gleysol (Ghh) is classified as peat by PTR 22, but classifying the soil texture and organic carbon content data of the HWSD does not necessarily provide the same class. To identify areas of peat in this data set the peat class (Class 8) in the layer on texture classes should be used, which is consistent with the texture and organic carbon layer data. The classification of peat is done on the basis of the soil clay and organic carbon content as found in the SGDBE of the ESDB. In case a model uses soil texture information separately from peat it is recommended to give priority to the peat areas identified in the data layer of classified soil texture

The A layer represents aquifer media with direct assignment of A index values for each aquifer material according to the proposal of the HOVER project. The aquifer media scoring was applied to IHME1500 lithology level 2 information.