Land use has changed drastically during the last fifty years (ESA SP 2006) sometimes with important negative effects such as urban sprawl, soil sealing, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, soil degradation, floods or desertification. The type of land use change varies among different types of regions. Based on the hypothesis that socio-economic activities are reflected in land use the project understands land use as how the land is used and how it is related to socio-economic activities. This means that at a single point multiple uses can be present. Until now, land use and land use change in Europe have been mainly addressed from a thematic perspective. There is a need to integrate all these different sector views. Land use characteristics are becoming increasingly multi-functional, crossing not only sectors but also administrative borders. Thus, the objective of the project is to develop a consistent methodology for analysing comparable information about European regions and cities, based on data from different sources and at different levels. Moreover, the project aims to supply regionalised information integrating the physical dimension (land cover) with socio-economic (land use) and environmental dimensions, in order to understand land use dynamics, land use changes and current land use patterns in the European territory, identifying main challenges in different types of territories, regions and cities and defining the policy recommendations to cope with the challenges. Achievements: Reports:Final Report - Executive Summary PDF Final Report - Main Report PDF Final Report - Main Scientific Report PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Land Use Characterization in Europe: Analysing land use patterns using typologies PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Land Use Functions and their linked to land use performance and efficiency PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Regional Land Use Performance and Land Use Efficiency: approaches for evaluation PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, The Urban Dimension in the EU-LUPA project PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Case Study Methodology and Regions Overview PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Case Study Jeleniogórski Subregion, Poland PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Case Study Øresund Region PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Case Study The Eurocity in the context of the Basque Country Region PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Case Study Chełmsko-Zamojski Region PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Case studies Land Cover Changes PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Land change typology in the context of the case studies PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, LUF and indicator assessment for EU-LUPA case studies PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Policy options and recommendations PDF Final Report - Scientific Report, Stakeholders Workshop Report PDF Draft Final Report - Executive Summary PDF Draft Final Report - Main Report PDF Draft Final Report - Scientific Report PDF Interim Report PDF Interim Report - Annex PDF Inception Report PDF Inception Report - Annexes PDF Project Specification PDF http://www.espon.eu/main/Menu_Projects/Menu_AppliedResearch/EU-Lupa.html