The LULUCF sector covers a broad range of biological and technical processes reflected in the greenhouse gas inventory. It includes all greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O) and key air pollutants from forest fires (NOₓ and CO). The inventory is based on land-use categories — forest land, cropland, grassland, wetlands, settlements and other land — linked to five carbon pools (living biomass above and below ground, dead organic matter including deadwood and litter, and soil carbon).
The first three categories are the most important because together they cover more than 90% of Slovakia’s territory. Land use and land-use change processes are mostly connected to CO₂ balances.
Biomass burning is treated as a separate category, covering controlled (burning of harvest residues) and uncontrolled processes (forest fires). It includes all three major greenhouse gases and key pollutants. The inventory also accounts for CO₂ emissions from the application of agricultural lime.
The spatial extent of each LULUCF category is based on data from the Office of Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre of the Slovak Republic (ÚGKK SR). ÚGKK SR publishes an annual Soil Resources Statistical Yearbook providing updated cadastral information on LULUCF areas.
The greenhouse gas emissions and removals inventory for LULUCF follows the methodological guidance in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines and the 2019 IPCC Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines.
Emission and removal projections for the LULUCF sector are also modelled for the main land-use categories (forest land, cropland, grassland, wetlands, settlements, other land) and harvested wood products. Projection inputs use the same dataset as the LULUCF GHG inventory for 1990–2022. Projected land areas and land-use changes for 2022–2050 were derived using the Forecast tool in MS Excel or as averages from historical data. For forest land, future development of forest-soil characteristics is modelled using outputs from the FCarbon forest growth model.