Medium- (MR) and Very-High-Resolution (VHR) Image Integration through Collect Earth for Monitoring Forests and Land-Use Changes: Global Forest Survey (GFS) in the Temperate FAO Ecozone in Europe (2000–2015)

Abstract

Monitoring of land use, land-use changes, and forestry (LULUCF) plays a crucial role in biodiversity and global environmental challenges. In 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched the Global Forest Survey (GFS) integrating medium- (MR) and very-high-resolution (VHR) images through the FAO’s Collect Earth platform. More than 11,150 plots were inventoried in the Temperate FAO ecozone in Europe to monitor LULUCF from 2000 to 2015. As a result, 2.19% (VHR) to 2.77% (MR/VHR) of the study area underwent LULUCF, including a 0.37% (VHR) to 0.43% (MR/VHR) net increase in forest lands. Collect Earth and VHR images have also (i) allowed for shaping a preliminary structure of the land-use network, showing that cropland was the land type that changed most and that cropland and grassland were the more frequent land uses that generated new forest land, (ii) shown that, in 2015, mixed and monospecific forests represented 44.3% and 46.5% of the forest land, respectively, unlike other forest sources, and (iii) shown that 14.9% of the area had been affected by disturbances, particularly wood harvesting (67.47% of the disturbed forests). According to other authors, the area showed a strong correlation between canopy mortality and reported wood removals due to the transition from past clear-cut systems to “close-to-nature” silviculture.