The 2023–2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduces eco-schemes as a key instrument for supporting environmentally beneficial agricultural practices, requiring a transition from control-based verification towards continuous monitoring within the Area Monitoring System (AMS). This study evaluates the monitorability of selected eco-scheme eligibility conditions defined in the Romanian CAP Strategic Plan using Earth Observation (EO) data. The analysis is based on a sample of 2616 arable parcels belonging to 15 holdings and integrates Sentinel-2 time series processed in a Python environment enabling the precise spatial assessment of parcel areas with parcel declarations and 0.5 m very high resolution (VHR) orthoimagery used as reference information. Parcel-level Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) temporal metrics were used to derive indicators for soil cover during the sensitive period, crop diversification and the share of nitrogen-fixing crops, while fallow land was identified through its characteristic temporal signature. The EO-derived results were aggregated at holding level in order to assess compliance with eco-scheme requirements and to classify their level of monitorability. The findings show that vegetation-related conditions can be reliably evaluated using Sentinel-2 time series, while the integration of VHR imagery enables the visual overview of the parcel area. The proposed parcel-based and fully reproducible workflow is compatible with the Geospatial Application (GSA) data model and demonstrates the operational potential of EO for the implementation of eco-schemes within the AMS, supporting a performance-oriented and spatially explicit CAP monitoring framework.
Luketić et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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