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Full catalog/clms_vlcc_fallow-land-duration_europe_10m_yearly_v1
clms_vlcc_fallow-land-duration_europe_10m_yearly_v1·dataset

How many days European fields sat fallow over five years (Copernicus)

CLMS VLCC Fallow Land Duration (CPFLD) Europe 10m yearly V1
biosphere ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Counts the total number of days each cropland parcel was left unplanted across a five-year period, anywhere from a single day up to 1,826 days. Only fields classed as annual cropland are included.

How it's made. Covers 2017 to 2021, derived from detected harvest dates and satellite vegetation data by the EU's Copernicus Land Monitoring Service at 10-metre resolution across Europe's 38 countries, including French overseas territories.

How & where you'd use it. Helps track how much farmland is being rested or taken out of production, informing soil-health monitoring, agricultural policy, and food-security assessments.

What's measured

CLMSCopernicusEuropeRasterLand coverCroplandFallow LandAgricultureCPLand use

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2017-01-01 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

The Fallow Land Duration (CPFLD) dataset provides information on the total number of days a parcel has been left fallow over a five-year period (2017–2021), with values ranging from 1 to 1826 days. Harvest dates are used to determine the fallow land duration. The accuracy of this layer depends on the accuracy of the CTYCL, the detected harvest and emergence events, and the fAPAR time series. Only parcels classified as annual cropland by the CTY layer are considered. This dataset covers the period 2017–2021 in 10-metre rasters (fully conformant with the EEA reference grid) in 100 × 100 km tiles covering the EEA-38 countries. The HRL Fallow Land Duration product is part of the European Union's Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. This dataset includes data from the French Overseas Territories (DOMs).

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["clms_vlcc_fallow-land-duration_europe_10m_yearly_v1"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.