Forest Age Map of Canada at 30-Meter Resolution for 2022

86.6% of Canada's forest age in 2022 was estimated using an allometric modeling approach due to a lack of widespread recent disturbance. This Landsat-derived map provides forest age across Canada's forested ecozones at a 30-meter spatial resolution, developed by Natural Resources Canada within the National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System. The data integrates Landsat and MODIS satellite information, with methods detailed in Maltman et al. (2023).

Use Cases

• Modeling forest carbon stocks based on age estimates derived from satellite data.
• Analyzing forest disturbance and recovery patterns based on the disturbance and recovery approaches described.
• Mapping old-growth forest distribution based on the 'old tree' category for trees over 150 years.
• Calibrating growth and yield models based on the allometric approach used for areas without disturbance evidence.

Strengths

• Provides a 30-meter spatial resolution for detailed analysis.
• Employs three distinct methodological approaches (disturbance, recovery, allometric) tailored to data availability.
• Developed within Canada's official National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS) framework.
• Peer-reviewed methodology published in Remote Sensing of Environment (Maltman et al., 2023).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The allometric approach, covering 86.6% of the area, is noted as less accurate than the disturbance-based method.

Provenance

Source

Natural Resources Canada

Collection Method

Satellite-based mapping using Landsat and MODIS data, with three estimation approaches (disturbance, recovery, allometric).

Time Range

2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-16 16:03:32.500278; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canada's forested ecozones