Annual Tree Crown Condition and Damage Cause Assessments

Annual assessments of tree and forest health, including crown condition, mortality, removal, and damage causes, conducted on Sanasilva and Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF) plots. The dataset is produced by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and other contributors under the ICP Forests program, with the last known update in 2019. It serves to monitor changes in forest health and the occurrence of diseases.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in crown condition metrics like defoliation or discoloration over time to assess forest health decline.
• Correlate specific damage causes (e.g., insect infestation, fungal disease) with tree mortality and removal rates.
• Model the impact of environmental stressors by linking annual assessment data from Sanasilva and LWF plots with external climate or pollution data.

Strengths

• Long-term annual monitoring data from established Sanasilva and LWF research plots.
• Standardized collection following the ICP Forests manual for visual crown condition assessment.

Limitations

• Data recency is unclear, with the last platform update noted as 2019.
• Specific sample size, row count, and geographic coverage details are not provided in the input.

Provenance

Source

ENVIDAT, with methodology from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the UNECE ICP Forests program.

Collection Method

Visual assessments conducted annually on permanent forest plots following standardized protocols.

Time Range

Annual time series; specific start year not provided.

Freshness

Annual assessments; last known update was 2019-01-01.

Geography

Spatial coverage includes Sanasilva sites and Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF) plots, primarily in Switzerland and Europe.