This dataset provides wall-to-wall maps of forest structure across Canada's 650 million hectare forested ecosystems for the year 2022, generated at a spatial resolution of 30 m. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). Structure estimates include key attributes such as canopy height, canopy cover, and aboveground biomass, derived using a combination of airborne lidar and Landsat-based spectral composites. Structure models were trained using the - lidar-plot framework - (Wulder et al. 2012), which integrates co-located airborne lidar data and ground plot measurements with Landsat time-series composites (Hermosilla et al. 2016). A Nearest Neighbour imputation approach was applied to estimate structural attributes across the full extent of Canada's forested area. These nationally consistent products are intended to support strategic-level forest monitoring and assessment and are not designed for operational forest management.For further details on the methods, accuracy assessment, and source data, see Matasci et al. (2018).Matasci, G., Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W., Bolton, D.K., Tompalski, P., Bater, C.W., 2018. Three decades of forest structural dynamics over Canada's forested ecosystems using Landsat time-series and lidar plots. Remote Sensing of Environment, 216, 697-714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.07.024 (Matasci et al. 2018)

This dataset provides treed area dynamics across Canada's 650 Mha forested ecosystems from 1984 to 2022, derived from Landsat-based annual land cover layers at a 30-m spatial resolution. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). This dataset identifies areas that remained treed, transitioned to treed (newly treed), or transitioned to other cover that is not treed vegetation (was-treed). The data enable national and regional assessments of long-term changes in treed area, capturing trends in treed area, post-disturbance recovery, and shifts in forest extent.When using this data, please cite as: Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Bater, C.W., Baral, S.K., Leach, J.A., 2025. Expansion of treed area over Canada’s forested ecosystems: spatial and temporal trends. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research 98(5) 786-799. https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpaf015. (Hermosilla et al. 2025)

High-resolution false-color Landsat image composite of Canada's forested ecosystems (2022). This national image product represents the Composite to Change (C2C) proxy composite image derived from thousands of Landsat images acquired between July 1 and August 30, 2022. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). The overall process followed is described in (Hermosilla et al. 2016 ) with details on the generation of gap-free surface reflectance composites in ( Hermosilla et al. 2015). Following the motivation and rationale presented in White et al. (White et al. 2014), Landsat imagery is subjected to a series of processing steps to remove clouds and shadows as well as haze and other unwanted atmospheric effects. Year-on-year time series of Landsat imagery are interrogated to avoid missing values, and to ensure exhaustive spatial coverage of the national surface reflectance composites. False-colour 3-channel image (bands: shortwave infrared, SWIR1; near infrared; red)When using these data, please cite as: Hermosilla, T., M.A. Wulder, J.C. White, N.C. Coops, G.W. Hobart, L.B. Campbell, 2016. Mass data processing of time series Landsat imagery: pixels to data products for forest monitoring. International Journal of Digital Earth 9(11), 1035-1054 (Hermosilla et al. 2016 ).

Wall-to-wall map of water bodies across Canada's forested ecosystems for the year 2022, derived from the "water" class of the annual Virtual Land Cover of Engine (VLCE) product. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). The VLCE maps are based on Landsat image time-series composites and represent annual land cover classifications from 1984 to 2022 at a spatial resolution of 30 m. The classification process integrates forest change information and ancillary topographic and hydrologic variables, applying a regional modeling framework based on a 150x150 km tiling system ( Hermosilla et al., 2022). Training data are drawn from multiple land cover sources and selected proportionally to land cover distributions using a distance-weighted approach. Classifications are refined over time using a Hidden Markov Model to ensure consistency and reduce classification noise between years.Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Coops, N.C. 2022. Land cover classification in an era of big and open data: Optimizing localized implementation and training data selection to improve mapping outcomes. Remote Sensing of Environment. 268, 112780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112780. ( Hermosilla et al., 2022)Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W. 2018. Disturbance-Informed Annual Land Cover Classification Maps of Canada's Forested Ecosystems for a 29-Year Landsat Time Series. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 44(1) 67-87. https://doi.org/10.1080/07038992.2018.1437719.( Hermosilla et al., 2018)

Satellite-based forest area consistent with FAO definitions for Canada. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). The forest area is based on the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) definition. The FAO definition incorporates land use, whereby trees removed by fire and harvesting for instance, remain forest as the trees will return. The included map displays the current forest cover for year as noted (i.e. 2022), plus the satellite-based temporally informed forest area where tree cover has been temporarily lost due to stand replacing disturbances (i.e., fire, harvest). For an overview of the methods, data, image processing, as well as information on accuracy assessment see Wulder et al. (2020).Open Access: Wulder, M.A., T. Hermosilla, G. Stinson, F.A. Gougeon, J.C. White, D.A. Hill, B.P. Smiley. (2020). Satellite-based time series land cover and change information to map forest area consistent with national and international reporting requirements. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research 93(3), 331-34, https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpaa0063 . ( Wulder et al. 2020)

Satellite-based forest area consistent with FAO definitions for Canada. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). The forest area is based on the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) definition. The FAO definition incorporates land use, whereby trees removed by fire and harvesting for instance, remain forest as the trees will return. The included map displays the current forest cover for year as noted (i.e. 2022), plus the satellite-based temporally informed forest area where tree cover has been temporarily lost due to stand replacing disturbances (i.e., fire, harvest). For an overview of the methods, data, image processing, as well as information on accuracy assessment see Wulder et al. (2020).Open Access: Wulder, M.A., T. Hermosilla, G. Stinson, F.A. Gougeon, J.C. White, D.A. Hill, B.P. Smiley. (2020). Satellite-based time series land cover and change information to map forest area consistent with national and international reporting requirements. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research 93(3), 331-34, https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpaa0063 . ( Wulder et al. 2020)

The wetland year count data included in this product is national in scope (entire forested ecosystem) and represents a wall to wall wetland characterization for 1984-2016 (Wulder et al. 2018). It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). This product was generated using both annual gap free composite reflectance images and annual forest change maps following the Virtual Land Cover Engine (VLCE) process (see Hermosilla et al. 2018), over the 650 million ha forested ecosystems of Canada. Elements of the VLCE classification approach are inclusion of disturbance information in the processes as well as ensuring class transitions over time are logical. Further, a Hidden Markov Model is implemented to assess individual year class likelihoods to reduce variability and possible noise in year-on-year class assignments (for instances when class likelihoods are similar). The values can range from 0 to 33 denoting the number of years between 1984 and 2016 that a pixel was classified as wetland or wetland-treed in the VLCE data cube.For an overview on the data, image processing, and time series change detection methods applied, as well as information on independent accuracy assessment of the data, see Hermosilla et al. (2016; http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17538947.2016.1187673). A detailed description of the VLCE process and the subsequently generated land cover product, including an accuracy assessment, please see Hermosilla et al. (2018). The focused wetland analyses can be found described in Wulder et al (2018).Geographic extent: Canada's forested ecosystems (~ 650 Mha)Time period: 1985–2011

High-resolution binary wetland map for Canada (2001-2016). Wetland map for the forested ecosystems of Canada focused on current conditions. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). The binary wetland data included in this product is national in scope (entirety of forested ecosystem) and represents the wall to wall characterization for 2001-2016 (see Wulder et al. 2018). This product was generated using both annual gap free composite reflectance images and annual forest change maps following the Virtual Land Cover Engine (VLCE) process (see Hermosilla et al. 2018), over the 650 million ha forested ecosystems of Canada. Elements of the VLCE classification approach are inclusion of disturbance information in the processes as well as ensuring class transitions over time are logical. Further, a Hidden Markov Model is implemented to assess individual year class likelihoods to reduce variability and possible noise in year-on-year class assignments (for instances when class likelihoods are similar). For this product, to be considered as currently a wetland a pixel must have been classified as wetland at least 80% or 13 of the 16 years between 2001 and 2016, inclusively. For an overview on the data, image processing, and time series change detection methods applied, see Wulder et al. (2018). Wulder, M.A., Z. Li, E. Campbell, J.C. White, G. Hobart, T. Hermosilla, and N.C. Coops (2018). A National Assessment of Wetland Status and Trends for Canada’s Forested Ecosystems Using 33 Years of Earth Observation Satellite Data. Remote Sensing. For a detailed description of the VLCE process and the subsequently generated land cover product, including an accuracy assessment, please see Hermosilla et al. (2018).

The “Terrestrial Ecozones of Canada” dataset provides representations of ecozones. An ecozone is the top level of the four levels of ecosystems that the National Ecological Framework for Canada defines. The framework divides Canada into 15 terrestrial ecozones that define its ecological mosaic on a sub-continental scale. Ecozones represent an area of the earth’s surface as large and very generalized ecological units. These units are characterized by interactive and adjusting abiotic and biotic factors.

This dataset provides wall-to-wall maps of forest structure across Canada's 650 million hectare forested ecosystems for the year 2022, generated at a spatial resolution of 30 m. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). Structure estimates include key attributes such as canopy height, canopy cover, and aboveground biomass, derived using a combination of airborne lidar and Landsat-based spectral composites. Structure models were trained using the - lidar-plot framework - (Wulder et al. 2012), which integrates co-located airborne lidar data and ground plot measurements with Landsat time-series composites (Hermosilla et al. 2016). A Nearest Neighbour imputation approach was applied to estimate structural attributes across the full extent of Canada's forested area. These nationally consistent products are intended to support strategic-level forest monitoring and assessment and are not designed for operational forest management.For further details on the methods, accuracy assessment, and source data, see Matasci et al. (2018).Matasci, G., Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W., Bolton, D.K., Tompalski, P., Bater, C.W., 2018. Three decades of forest structural dynamics over Canada's forested ecosystems using Landsat time-series and lidar plots. Remote Sensing of Environment, 216, 697-714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.07.024 (Matasci et al. 2018)