CAFAMORE advances towards harmonised data catalogues for carbon modelling and analytics

Ensuring the availability, documentation, and harmonisation of all input data is crucial for parcel-level baseline calculations and carbon stock change assessments. In particular, this includes soil, climate, crop and crop management information, as well as Earth Observation (EO) products, which form the basis for subsequent modelling and analytics.

One of the main goals of CAFAMORE is to develop harmonised, well-documented data catalogues for soil, climate, earth observation, crop, and crop management information across the EU. During the first months of the project, CAFAMORE experts concentrated on identifying data requirements and relevant datasets to meet these requirements. To achieve this, the team led by Sophie Bontemps (UCLouvain) and Fenny van Egmond (Wageningen Research) has engaged in extensive consultations with project pilots and partners to clarify needs across all data domains. These discussions have highlighted how requirements vary significantly based on national contexts, data availability, and existing monitoring expertise.

A key innovative component of CAFAMORE’s work is the integration of EO data into the input data framework. Satellite-derived products offer strong potential for monitoring carbon farming, as they enable the detection of crop rotations and a wide range of management practices that influence soil organic carbon dynamics. For instance, it is possible to identify bare soil periods, cover crops, tillage, irrigation, harvesting, residue management, and landscape features like hedgerows. While EO provides a cost-efficient solution for large-scale, continuous monitoring, CAFAMORE is specifically working to refine its operational integration into quantitative carbon assessment workflows.

The diversity of existing Earth Observation solutions, which range from readily available products to pilot-specific processing chains, represents an additional challenge. To address this, CAFAMORE adopts a two-step approach. Initially, multiple EO-derived products will be tested in the pilots, enabling a comparison and identification of the most appropriate products for each specific context. In a second phase, the selected solutions will be generated and provided at full scale.

Linking with already existing projects and repositories is essential to enable reuse of available resources and alignment with European standards. As a consequence, CAFAMORE actively connects with projects SoilWise , MARVIC , MRV4SOC , ORCaSa , and the INSPIRE GeoPortal to obtain soil information, whereas ERA5-Land and AgERA5, have been identified as candidate data sources for baseline calculations.

By establishing rigorous data standards and validating innovative Earth Observation technologies, CAFAMORE is creating a credible, scalable foundation for carbon markets. The project’s harmonised approach ensures that European farmers and land managers have the transparent tools they need to turn sustainable soil management into a verifiable and rewarding reality for the climate.