Fine-scale maps of tree cover generated using time-series Planet-NICFI imagery for Southeast Asia (2016-2021)

Based on the developed random forest method, we generated the first accurate high-resolution time-series tree cover product for Southeast Asia (SEA) integrating Planet-Norway’s International Climate & Forests Initiative (NICFI) imagery and Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar data on the Google Earth Engine platform. Our Planet-NICFI tree cover map was mapped with good accuracy and high consistency across six years (2016-2021).

The baseline tree cover maps at 4.77 m can be converted to SEA’s forest cover maps at various resolutions to meet different users’ needs. Furthermore, our tree cover products can help resolve rounding errors in forest cover mapping by counting isolated trees and monitoring long narrow forest cover removal.