Forest Canopy Height Variability Across Canada, 2015

Forest Elevation(Ht) Covariance 2015 is a geospatial dataset representing the coefficient of variation of first returns height (%), which indicates variability in canopy heights relative to the mean. It was developed by Natural Resources Canada within the National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS) framework, using a method combining lidar plot data with Landsat composites via a nearest neighbour imputation approach. The data covers Canada's forested ecosystems from 1985 to 2011 and has a spatial resolution of 30 meters.

Use Cases

• Modeling forest structural dynamics based on canopy height variability metrics.
• Strategic-level forest monitoring based on peer-reviewed, area-based modelled inventory attributes.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of forest canopy heterogeneity across Canada's forested ecosystems.
• Calibrating or validating other remote sensing products using the lidar-derived height metrics.

Strengths

• Data is based on peer-reviewed science and methods described in Matasci et al. (2018).
• Covers a vast geographic extent of approximately 650 million hectares of Canada's forested ecosystems.
• Has a defined spatial resolution of 30 meters.
• Generated within the framework of Canada's National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS).

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is explicitly noted as not intended to support operational-level forest management.

Provenance

Source

Natural Resources Canada

Collection Method

Generated by combining lidar plot information with Landsat pixel-based composites using a nearest neighbour imputation approach with a Random Forests-based distance metric.

Time Range

1985–2011

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-16 16:02:28.328540; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canada's forested ecosystems