Canadian Forest Harvest Disturbance Maps from Landsat, 1985-2022

38 years of annual harvest disturbance data for Canada's 650-million-hectare forested ecosystems. The dataset maps the year of greatest harvest disturbance from 1985 to 2022 using a fully automated, consistent methodology within Canada's National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System. It was produced by researchers from Natural Resources Canada using 30-meter resolution Landsat time series.

Use Cases

• Modeling long-term forest harvest trends based on the 38-year time series.
• Mapping the spatial extent of harvest disturbance based on the 30-meter Landsat resolution.
• Attributing forest change to harvest activities based on the described change detection methods.
• Assessing the impact of forestry on Canada's forested ecosystems based on the national coverage.

Strengths

• Covers a 38-year time series (1985-2022) providing long-term trend analysis.
• Spatially explicit data for Canada's 650-million-hectare forested ecosystems.
• Derived from a single, consistent data source using a fully automated, peer-reviewed methodology.
• Includes independent accuracy assessment as referenced in the provided citations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Landsat satellite coverage and Canadian focus.

Provenance

Source

Natural Resources Canada, produced by researchers including Hermosilla, Wulder, White, Coops, and Hobart.

Collection Method

Fully automated processing of Landsat time series (30 m resolution) for change detection and attribution.

Time Range

1985-2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 16:03:01.021513; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canada