Forest Services

The Forest Monitoring Service is developing and demonstrating innovative, timely, cost-effective and quality-assured forest products to support European users in their reporting obligations towards national and international policies such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) etc. The services provide highly accurate and spatially detailed information on the state and development of forests, while suiting different definitions of forest.

The products are mapped by applying standardised high-capacity processing chains to Earth Observation and in-situ data. Information will be represented in a high-resolution Forest Layer with consistent 1 ha Minimum Mapping Unit. It will contain information for Forest Area by four forest types (coniferous forest, broad-leafed forest, mixed forest and un-stocked areas/clear-cuts) as well as Forest Area Change. These classes are compatible with CORINE Land Cover information.

Since national and international definitions for forest often differ in the applicable threshold for crown closure, an additional, innovative Forest Crown Cover Density product will complement the Forest classes and allow the quantification and investigation of the European forest area in an unprecedented harmonised and flexible way, for any definition of forest.

• Consistent and up-to-date European forest products for multiple applications in the forest and environmental domain;
• Maximum flexibility to suit various definitions of Forest Area;
• Fit-for-purpose products meeting the high verification and thematic accuracy requirements for policy reporting and downstream service integration.

For further details please consult the Forest Service flyer (2,3 MB) or contact the Forest Services team by Email.

The Forest products and services are accessible on the geoland2 SDI Expert portal.