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A diverse temporal sequence of different crop types on a field contributes to the heterogeneity of land use and promotes, amongst other things, soil quality and nutrient supply on the land. Furthermore, an appropriate crop rotation is an effective means of controlling pests in arable farming.
The indicator describes the crop rotation of the main crop on a plot over a period of 7 years (P). The quantification of temporal diversity is based on two approaches:
a) the calculation of the number (N) of main crop types over the period P (temporal richness)
b) the calculation of the frequency of occurrence of a main crop species (RPi) in relation to the crop management recommendation (CMR). This is determined for all main crop species (i) (QRPi).
The indicator is based on a 7-year time series (currently 2017–2023) with national spatial coverage of agricultural land use, based on dense time series of Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8/9 Earth observation satellite data. First, the main crop types (+ grassland and other land uses) are determined for each pixel from the satellite data. The methodology is based on an adaptation of the methodology described in Pham et al. (2024). To calculate the indicators, the pixel values are aggregated into homogeneous areas. The generation of area boundaries is also based on remote sensing data, following the methodology of Tetteh et al. (2023). At the reporting level, the values for the reference units are aggregated using statistical methods across all arable land or areas of a major crop type. At the reporting level, the values for the reference units are aggregated using statistical methods across all arable land or areas of a major crop type. The map shows the crop rotation based on the number (N) of main crop types in the period 2017 to 2023. The indicator values, which are initially calculated for 100 ha hexagons across Germany, have been aggregated at the level of SCR.
Last updated: 2026 based on Indicator Sheet
