Alternate title

Forest HRL Data Series 2015

Date (Publication)

2018-03-22T00:00:00

Citation identifier

LC.IE.EPA.COPERNIUS_HRL_FORESTS

Purpose

The aim of the Forest data series is to identify the status of forest density, the change between reference years and the dominant leaf type as a comparable product across Europe.

Status

Completed

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Environmental Protection Agency		gis@epa.ie	Distributor
European Environment Agency under the framework of Copernicus		copernicus@eea.europa.eu	Originator

Maintenance and update frequency

As needed

GemetInspireTheme

• Land cover

GEMET - Concepts, version 3.1

• land

• land use

• land cover

• Forest

Environmental Protection Agency

• Copernicus

• Copernicus Land Monitoring Service

• CLMS

• EEA

• Tree Cover Density

• Dominant Leaf

• High Resolution Layer

ISO 3166

• IE

Use limitation

Data was produced with funding by the European Union. Copyright Copernicus Programme

Access to data is based on a principle of full, open and free access as established by the Copernicus data and information policy Regulation (EU) No 1159/2013 of 12 July 2013. This regulation establishes registration and licensing conditions for GMES/Copernicus users and can be found <a href=" http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32013R1159"> here. </a> Free, full and open access to this data set is made on the conditions that:

1. When distributing or communicating Copernicus dedicated data and Copernicus service information to the public, users shall inform the public of the source of that data and information.

2. Users shall make sure not to convey the impression to the public that the user's activities are officially endorsed by the Union.

3. Where that data or information has been adapted or modified, the user shall clearly state this.

4. The data remain the sole property of the European Union. Any information and data produced in the framework of the action shall be the sole property of the European Union. Any communication and publication by the beneficiary shall acknowledge that the data were produced “with funding by the European Union”.

DISCLAIMER:

The Environmental Protection Agency has undertaken to distribute the data on behalf of EEA under Specific Contract No 3436/R0-Copernicus/EEA.56990 implementing Framework service contract No EEA/IDM/R0/16/009/Ireland. The Environmental Protection Agency accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the content and use of these data.

The European Environment Agency accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information on this site and the information does not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the EEA or other European Communities bodies and institutions.

Use limitation

Data is for public use under Creative Commons CC-By 4.0

Access constraints

License

Use constraints

License

Other constraints

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Spatial representation type

Vector

Denominator

50000

Language

English

Character set

UTF8

Topic category

• Environment

Begin date

2006-01-01T00:00:00

End date

2012-01-01T00:00:00

Reference system identifier

EPSG / http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/2157

EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset 2009-11-25

Distribution format

Name	Version
ESRI Shapefile	10.x

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Environmental Protection Agency	GIS Team	gis@epa.ie	Publisher

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
text/html	https://gis.epa.ie/GetData/Download	Download data
text/html	https://land.copernicus.eu/	Copernicus Land Monitoring Service Website
text/html	https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/high-resolution-layers/forests/tree-cover-density/status-maps/2015?tab=metadata	EEA Forest Data & Metadata Link
text/html	https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/hrl-forest	Forest Data Series Product Specification

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Statement

The forest data series was produced using semi-automatic classification of pre-processed multitemporal High Resolution (HR) satellite image data (Sentinel-2, Landsat 8) with reference year 2015 (+/- 1 year), using supervised and unsupervised elements, leading to scene-based initial land cover classifications. Performing of a time series analysis to extract tree cover. Subsequently, interactive manual corrections of the derived tree cover mask have been performed and integrated to a seamless mosaic. Thereafter a mono-temporal, regression-based thematic classification of Tree Cover Density values has been performed on HR_IMAGE_2015, Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 data using the HRL Forest reference products for calibration and validation. Finally, TCD results have been mosaicked to an area wide pan-European TCD dataset, absolutely calibrated (if necessary) and intersected with the derived tree cover mask. Geometric accuracy (positioning scale): Less than one pixel according to ortho-rectified satellite image base delivered by ESA. The overall thematic accuracy aims to be >90%.

Quality assurance follows the ISO9000 standards for Quality Management and comprises of dedicated procedures of ongoing quality checks (QA breakpoints) during implementation of the production chain, in order to keep persistent control over the various stages of production, assure fitness-for-purpose of the end-products and that all quality requirements are fulfilled. Priority has been given to the target thematic accuracies to be achieved by each product, as well as to the issues of product consistency (spatial, thematic, temporal) and homogeneity.

Quality Assessment: The quality assessment has been performed according to INSPIRE Data Specifications. The data quality elements considered are:

(i) Completeness,

(ii) Logical Consistency,

(iv) Thematic Accuracy,

(v) Temporal quality and

(vi) Usability.

Each of them (excl. the Thematic Accuracy hereafter) forms a section in the QA/QC Procedures.

The EPA quality assessment of the Imperviousness data for 2015 is that the overall quality, based on look and feel assessment, is good in urban areas but insufficient in the rural areas of Ireland. In rural areas there is significant settlement in villages and via ribbon development along the national road network, this data is not captured well in the imperviousness data. Statistical verification carried out by the national verification team and based on random point sample assessments highlights a significant level of commission and omission errors. The primary issues were experienced when transitioning to the more rural areas of Ireland but there were also issues identified with mineral extractions sites being classified as impervious areas. It was also noted that there were inconsistencies between different regions of Ireland with some regions having better accuracy than others.

The EPA carried out quality assessment and verification work on both the Tree Cover Density and Dominant Leaf Type datasets for 2015. Our assessment is as follows:

The Tree Cover Density dataset is in the majority good with most tree cover density generally captured. However, there were some issues relating to the accuracy of tree cover boundaries and some miss classification in urban areas of buildings that run parallel to trees. Although the general location of forests is identified their boundaries are fuzzy and have inaccuracies compared to the national data, this was also verified with the imagery. The experience of the national verification team is that the miss classification of urban areas happens mostly in areas where tree cover is sparse, in most cases the HRL data should just be one or two raster cells of medium to high density trees but instead a larger area of low density tree cover is captured. There was also some evidence of shadows in mountainous areas being miss classified as tree cover density. The statistical validation shows that there was a low level of commission error but a higher level of omission error with large areas of forest being omitted form the Tree Cover Density HRL. Although overall this was one of the better HRL datasets there are still some accuracy issues and the national data that is available in Ireland is better for national assessment activities.

The Dominant Leaf Type HRL dataset is on balance acceptable. It was found to be good in the large areas that cover the different lowland and mountain forest types and good around the wetlands, moors, heathlands and water bodies strata that were checked. The main issues that existed in these areas is the miss classification of patches within large solely coniferous forests as broadleaf areas and some encroachment of the dominant leaf type data into wetlands, moors, heathlands and water bodies. There were also some issues with scrubby areas along lake and river waterbodies being classified as broadleaf areas. The data was poorest in urban areas where the dominant leaf type is miss classifying impervious areas and gardens as broadleaf areas while public park areas were missed when the data shows that they should have been captured as broadleaf. The statistical validation shows that both the commission and omission error levels are at between 24% and 29% respectively. Although overall this was one of the better HRL dataset, like the tree cover density dataset, there are still some accuracy issues and the national data that is available in Ireland is better for national assessment activities.

The reports developed as part of the national assessment and verification process a have been submitted to the EEA with the aim of addressing the primary issues during the production process of future datasets.

Metadata

File identifier

fbe8afe3-77e1-48f1-ac77-218f568f6f39 XML

Metadata language

English

Character set

UTF8

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Date stamp

2019-06-12T15:12:16Z

Metadata standard name

ISDI Metadata Profile

Metadata standard version

1.2

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Environmental Protection Agency	Data Analyst	gis@edenireland.ie	Point of contact