About the talk
Earth observation data enable the monitoring of forest extent and change from national to global scales. Consistent processing of time-series images has made possible the operational production of global tree cover extent, loss and gain products. However, attribution of dynamics in the context 1) reference state, for example forest type, 2) change factor, for example fire or logging, and 3) outcome, for example land use type or natural recovery, is more challenging. In addition to mapping, the requirement to perform robust sample-based analyses to report on all themes is underappreciated. This talk will review our work on characterizing forest dynamics at the global scale using multi-source satellite imagery, including mapping and sampling, in the context of current operational versus future aspirational capabilities.