European Forest Disturbance Maps from Landsat (1986-2020)

Cornelius Senf and colleagues provide annual maps of forest disturbances across 35 European countries derived from Landsat satellite data. The dataset covers the period from 1986 to 2020 and includes a forest mask and, for some versions, a map of disturbance severity. Maps are available as geoTIFF files per country in the EPSG 3035 coordinate reference system.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in forest disturbance based on annual maps from 1986 to 2020.
• Assessing the severity of forest disturbances using the provided severity layer (available up to 2016).
• Masking non-forest areas for regional ecological studies using the included forest mask.
• Monitoring specific disturbance events, such as storms or insect outbreaks, across European countries.

Strengths

• Provides a 35-year time series (1986-2020) of annual forest disturbance data.
• Covers a broad spatial extent of 35 European countries.
• Includes ancillary data layers such as a forest mask and disturbance severity estimates.
• Methodology is documented in a peer-reviewed publication in Nature Sustainability.

Limitations

• Disturbance severity maps are only available until 2016, not covering the full time series to 2020.
• Known data issues include SLC-off artefacts in northern Serbia and false disturbances mapped in Norway in 2020.
• Input sources conflict on the most current version number (1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2), indicating potential versioning inconsistencies.

Provenance

Source

Cornelius Senf, Technical University of Munich

Collection Method

Derived from Landsat satellite data using methods described in Senf and Seidl (2021).

Time Range

1986-2020

Geography

35 European countries