Forest Canopy Cover Loss (FCCL) - Germany - Monthly, Administrative Level

This vector dataset is based on a 10 m resolution raster dataset that shows forest canopy cover loss (FCCL) in Germany at a monthly resolution from September 2017 to September 2024. Results at pixel level were aggregated at municipality, district, and federal state level. For the results at administrative level we differentiate between deciduous and coniferous forests. We use the stocked area map 2018 (Langner et al. 2022, https://doi.org/10.3220/DATA20221205151218 ) as a reference forest mask. We differentiate between deciduous and coniferous forests by intersecting the stocked area map with a tree species map (Blickensdoerfer et al. 2024). Pixels of the classes birch, beech, oak, alder, deciduous trees with long lifespan and deciduous trees with short lifespan were classified as deciduous forest and pixels of the classes Douglas fir, spruce, pine, larch and fir as coniferous forest. The coverage of the two datasets is not identical, which is why a few areas of the forest reference map remained unclassified. These were filled with the dominant leaf type map of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS 2025). Therefore, the vector data at administrative level contains information about unclassified forest areas and the total forest area as the sum of deciduous, coniferous, and unclassified forests. The FCCL confidence at pixel level is lowest at the end of the time series because the number of repeated threshold exceedance is used as a criterion to record forest canopy cover losses. Therefore, we excluded July 2024 through September 2024 from the annual and overall statistics and summarized the respective FCCL as additional attribute. The dataset is a fully reprocessed continuation of the assessment in Thonfeld et al. (2022).

Citation proposal
German Aerospace Center (DLR). Forest Canopy Cover Loss (FCCL) - Germany - Monthly, Administrative Level. https://gdk.gdi-de.org/geonetwork/srv/api/records/6f49bd22-5d73-44de-8d9b-95bb9825013f

Simple

Date ( Creation ): 2025-06-11T00:00:00

Edition

Identifier: https://geoservice.dlr.de/catalogue/srv/metadata/6f49bd22-5d73-44de-8d9b-95bb9825013f

Presentation form: Digital map

Other citation details

Purpose: This data set shows recent-past FCCL dynamics. It can be used for future forest management and planning. It therefore addresses public authorities and several stakeholders in the forest, nature conservation and climate sector. It allows comparisons at administrative level.

Status: ongoing

Author

German Aerospace Center (DLR) -

Point of contact

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ( Theme )

Land cover

Spatial scope ( Place )

National

Keywords

DLR
EOC
opendata
Forest
Canopy Cover Loss
Disturbance
Sentinel-2
Landsat
Administrative Level
Multispectral
Germany

Use limitation: Nutzungseinschränkungen: Das DLR ist nicht haftbar für Schäden, die sich aus der Nutzung ergeben. / Use Limitations: DLR not liable for damage resulting from use.

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Nutzungsbedingungen: Lizenz, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Terms of use: License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Other constraints

{"id": "cc-by-4.0",

"name": "Creative-Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)",

"url": "http://dcat-ap.de/def/licenses/cc-by/4.0",

"quelle": "Copyright DLR (year of production)"}

Spatial representation type: Grid

Metadata language: English English

Character set: UTF8

Topic category

Biota

Distribution format

Geopackage ()

OnLine resource: FCCL_DE_P1M_VEC
EOC Land Map Service

OnLine resource: FCCL_DE_P1M_GEM
EOC Land Map Service

OnLine resource: FCCL_DE_P1M_KRS
EOC Land Map Service

OnLine resource: FCCL_DE_P1M_LAN
EOC Land Map Service

OnLine resource: HTTP Download
HTTP Download

OnLine resource: EOC Geoservice Dataset
EOC Geoservice Dataset

OnLine resource: Sorge um den deutschen Wald
DLR News - Webpage

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification: INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Date ( Publication ): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See the referenced specification.

Pass: true

Statement: The data set is based on the FCCL product at pixel level which uses time series of Sentinel-2A/B and Landsat-8/9 data.

Description

Processing:

Due to the fact that pixel outlines do not follow the shape of the administrative borders the computed areas can differ from per-polygon computations and hence official statistics. This also impacts the computation of percentages.

Quality Assurance: The municipalities with very little forest area may show unusually high values due to the limited spatial resolution of the satellite data and the associated high Impact of single pixels.