Forest Total Aboveground Biomass for Canada's Forested Ecosystems, 30m Resolution

650 million hectares of Canada's forested ecosystems are mapped for total aboveground biomass at a 30-meter spatial resolution. This dataset, produced by Natural Resources Canada, combines lidar plot data with Landsat pixel composites using a Random Forests-based imputation approach for the period 1985–2011. The products are intended for strategic-level forest monitoring and are based on peer-reviewed science, with detailed methods described in Matasci et al. (2018).

Use Cases

• Modeling forest carbon storage and sequestration based on biomass estimates.
• Analyzing changes in forest structure over time based on the 1985–2011 time-series.
• Calibrating or validating remote sensing models using the lidar and Landsat-derived metrics.
• Supporting strategic-level forest monitoring and reporting at a national scale.

Strengths

• Covers approximately 650 million hectares of Canada's forested ecosystems.
• Data is generated at a consistent 30-meter spatial resolution.
• Based on peer-reviewed science and integrates lidar plots with Landsat composites.
• Provides a time-series covering the period from 1985 to 2011.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description states the products are not intended to support operational-level forest management.
• Row count and sample data are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Natural Resources Canada

Collection Method

Combined lidar plot data with Landsat pixel composites using a nearest neighbour imputation approach with a Random Forests-based distance metric.

Time Range

1985–2011

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-16 16:05:14.281864; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canada's forested ecosystems