Annual High-resolution forest land cover for Canada (1984-2022)

High-resolution annual forest land cover maps for Canada's forested ecosystems (1984-2022). The annual time series of forest land cover maps are national in scope (entire 650 million hectare forested ecosystem) and represent a wall-to-wall land cover characterization yearly from 1984 to 2022. These time-series land cover maps were produced from annual time-series of Landsat image composites, forest change information, and ancillary topographic and hydrologic data following the framework described in Hermosilla et al. (2022), which builds upon the approach introduced in Hermosilla et al. (2018). The methodological innovations included (i) a refined training pool derived from existing land cover products using airborne and spaceborne measures of forest structure; (ii) selection of training samples proportionally to the land cover distribution using a distance-weighted approach; and (iii) generation of regional classification models using a 150x150 km tiling system. Maps are post-processed using disturbance information to ensure logical class transitions over time using a Hidden Markov Model. Hidden Markov Models assess individual year class likelihoods to reduce variability and possible noise in year-on-year class assignments (for instances when class likelihoods are similar).

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. Vol. 268, No. 112780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112780. ( Hermosilla et al. 2022)

Hermosilla, T., M.A. Wulder, J.C. White, N.C. Coops, G. W. Hobart, (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.DOI: 10.1080/07038992.2018.1437719 ( Hermosilla et al. 2018).

Date ( RI_367 ): 2025-12-16

Date ( RI_366 ): 2025-12-16

RI_415

Government of Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Service canadien des forêts - Dr. Michael A. Wulder ( Research Scientist )

506 W. Burnside Road , Victoria , British Columbia , V8Z1M5 , Canada

250-298-2401
250-363-0775
https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/employes/vue/mwulder

Hours of service: email only please

Status: completed; complété RI_593

Maintenance and update frequency: asNeeded; auBesoin RI_540

Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )

Forests

Use limitation: Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)

Access constraints: license; licence RI_606

Use constraints: license; licence RI_606

Spatial representation type: grid; grille RI_636

Metadata language: eng; CAN

Character set: utf8; utf8 RI_458

Topic category

Geoscientific information

Begin date: 2015

End date: 2015

Reference system identifier: http://www.epsg-registry.org / EPSG:3978 / 1.0

Distribution format

GeoTIF ( 1.0 )

RI_415

Government of Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Canadian Forest Service - Dr. Michael A. Wulder ( Research Scientist )

506 W. Burnside Road , Victoria , British Columbia , V8Z1M5 , Canada

250-298-2401
250-363-0775
https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/employes/vue/mwulder

Hours of service: email only please

OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1984.zip ( HTTPS )
Dataset;ZIP;zxx

OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2022 ( OGC:WMS )
Web Service;WMS;eng

OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2022 ( OGC:WMS )
Web Service;WMS;fra

OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1985.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1986.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1987.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1988.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1989.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1990.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1991.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1992.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1993.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1994.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1995.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1996.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1997.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1998.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_1999.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2000.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2001.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2002.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2003.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2004.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2005.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2006.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2007.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2008.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2009.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2010.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2011.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2012.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2013.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2014.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2015.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2016.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2017.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2018.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2019.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2020.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2021.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: CA_forest_VLCE2_2022.zip ( HTTPS )
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OnLine resource: Characterizing long-term tree species dynamics in Canada's forested ecosystems using annual time series remote sensing data. ( HTTPS )
Supporting Document;PDF;eng

OnLine resource: A nationwide annual characterization of 25 years of forest disturbance and recovery for Canada using Landsat time series ( HTTPS )
Supporting Document;PDF;eng

OnLine resource: Mass data processing of time series Landsat imagery: pixels to data products for forest monitoring ( HTTPS )
Supporting Document;PDF;eng

OnLine resource: Updating Landsat time series of surface-reflectance composites and forest change products with new observations ( HTTPS )
Supporting Document;PDF;eng

OnLine resource: Disturbance-Informed Annual Land Cover Classification Maps of Canada's Forested Ecosystems for a 29-Year Landsat Time Series ( HTTPS )
Supporting Document;PDF;eng

OnLine resource: Satellite Forest Information for Canada ( HTTPS )
Application;HTML;eng

OnLine resource: Satellite Forest Information for Canada ( HTTPS )
Application;HTML;fra

File identifier: 2785c103-9c2d-429b-9f3d-89f5cd9ea94d XML

Metadata language: eng; CAN

Character set: utf8; utf8 RI_458

Hierarchy level: dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622

Date stamp: 2025-12-29T14:37:03

Metadata standard name: North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata

Metadata standard version: CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009

RI_415

Government of Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Service canadien des forêts - Dr. Michael A. Wulder ( Research Scientist )

506 W. Burnside Road , Victoria , British Columbia , V8Z1M5 , Canada

250-298-2401
250-363-0775
https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/employes/vue/mwulder

Hours of service: email only please

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