Geomaticians

National Forest Maps Of Germany Based On Current Satellite Imagery And Terrestrial Data

National Forest Maps Of Germany Based On Current Satellite Imagery And Terrestrial Data
The Thünen Institute now offers interactive forest maps through the Thünen Atlas (http://atlas.thuenen.de) that provide a nationwide overview of the stocked forest area—i.e., the area on which trees grow—and the dominant tree species. The digital maps have a resolution of 10m x 10m. The map of dominant tree species is based on data from the Sentinel satellites. The nationwide consistent data sample from the 2012 National Forest Inventory and the 2017 Carbon Inventory were used for tree species classification and for the comprehensive statistical validation of the maps. To produce the tree species map, data from the National Forest Inventory were combined with Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellite data from the Copernicus-Program and processed using machine learning methods. Regional growth conditions were accounted for by weather and climate data from the German Meteorological Service and by including a nationwide elevation model.