Harvest Year/Mask (1985-2015)

Annual mapping of national level forest harvesting for Canada detected inclusive of 1985 to 2015 from Landsat satellite imagery. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). This dataset is composed of two layers: (1) binary harvest mask, and (2) year of harvest disturbance detection. The information outcomes represent 31 years of harvesting activity in Canada’s forests, derived from a single, consistent, spatially-explicit data source in an automated manner. Time series of Landsat data with 30-m spatial resolution were used to characterize national trends in stand replacing forest disturbances, including those attributed to harvest for the period 1985–2015 for Canada's 650 million hectare forested ecosystems (Hermosilla et al. 2016). See references below for an overview regarding the data, image processing, and time-series change detection methods applied, as well as information on independent accuracy assessment of the data. When using this 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) For additional resources on the data used and methods applied, please see: Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M. A., White, J. C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W., (2015). An integrated Landsat time series protocol for change detection and generation of annual gap-free surface reflectance composites. Remote Sensing of Environment 158, 220-234. ( Hermosilla et al. 2015a) Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W., (2015). Regional detection, characterization, and attribution of annual forest change from 1984 to 2012 using Landsat-derived time-series metrics. Remote Sensing of Environment 170, 121-132. ( Hermosilla et al. 2015b) Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W., 2017. Updating Landsat time series of surface-reflectance composites and forest change products with new observations. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 63, 104-111.( Hermosilla et al. 2017)

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated April 17, 2026, 20:35 (UTC)
Created April 17, 2026, 20:35 (UTC)
contact_email mike.wulder@canada.ca
contact_person {"en": "Government of Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, Forest Geomatics", "fr": "Gouvernement du Canada; Ressources naturelles Canada; Service canadien des forêts Centre de foresterie du Pacifique"}
criticality_level []
data_dictionary EPSG:3978,http://www.epsg-registry.org,1.0
geographic_scope []
open_canada_collection fgp
open_canada_date_published 2020-01-01 00:00:00
open_canada_keywords {"en": ["National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS)", "Harvest", "Forests"], "fr": ["National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS)", "Récolte", "Forêt"]}
open_canada_subject ["form_descriptors", "nature_and_environment", "science_and_technology"]
sensitivity_level unrestricted
title_fr Année de récolte/Masque (1985-2015)
update_frequency as_needed