In the EU different utilization demands compete with each other and space is limited. As a consequence, socio-economic considerations and economic activities play therefore an important part in land use management and conservation planning. Often the integration of conservation concerns in agricultural as well as forestry production land use models has been neglected. One reason is a lack of accurate and consistent basis data. Therefore, conservation studies that offer high-accuracy landscape information at the European level are often recommended by policy makers, but rarely realized. This study contributes to this problem by creating and preparing a wetland distribution model (SWEDI) for integration into the mathematical bottom-up land use assessment model EUFASOM, which studies synergies and tradeoffs between biodiversity conservation efforts, greenhouse gas mitigation options, as well as traditional agriculture and forestry. The basis of SWEDI is the optimal combination of existing spatial datasets to obtain the spatial distribution of wetlands by definition of flexible knowledge rules. The model distinguishes between existing wetlands and sites suitable for wetland restoration at 1 km resolution. It differentiates several wetland types and covers the whole EU-25 area. The results of the model may help to locate sites suitable for restoration programs, or for the introduction of faunistic corridors.