European Primary Forest Dataset - Polygons

HU_BERLIN/EPFD/V2/polygons
Dataset Availability
2000-01-01T01:00:00Z–2019-12-31T16:45:00Z
Dataset Provider
Earth Engine Snippet
FeatureCollection
ee.FeatureCollection("HU_BERLIN/EPFD/V2/polygons")
FeatureView
ui.Map.FeatureViewLayer("HU_BERLIN/EPFD/V2/polygons_FeatureView")

Description

European primary forest data harmonizes 48 different, mostly field-based datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. It includes includes mainly old-growth, late-successional forests, but also some early seral stages and young forests that originated after natural disturbances and natural regeneration, without subsequent management.

For more information, including a complete list of authors and their affiliations, please see the dataset documentation This dataset is a polygon-based, where each polygon represents a primary forest with boundaries.

Table Schema

Table Schema

Name Type Description
BIOGEOGRAP STRING

Biogeographical region is defined by the European Environmental Agency, one of: Alpine, Arctic, Atlantic, Black Sea, Boreal, Continental, Macaronesia, Mediterranean, Pannonian, or Steppic.
CONTACT_PE STRING

Contact person
DOMINANT_1 STRING

Species (latin name) of the dominant tree species of the overstorey
DOMINANT_2 STRING

Species (latin name) of the second dominant tree species of the overstorey (if any)
DOMINANT_T STRING

Species (latin name) of the third dominant tree species of the overstorey (if any)
FOREST_NAM STRING

Name of the forest stand (if applicable, otherwise can be name of the wider area)
FOREST_SHA DOUBLE

Actual share of the polygon covered by forest, assuming that primary forests in high naturalness classes, and having a large extent, may encompass land temporarily or permanently not covered by forest.
FOREST_TYP INT

Main forest type according to the forest categories defined by the European Environmental Agency, based on the map of Potential Vegetation type for Europe. Possible values:

  • 1: Boreal
  • 2: Hemiboreal-nemoral
  • 3: Alpine coniferous
  • 4: Acidophilus oak-birch
  • 5: Mesophytic deciduous
  • 6: Lowland beech
  • 7: Montane beech
  • 8: Thermophilus deciduous
  • 9: Broadleaved evergreen
  • 10: Coniferous Mediterranean
  • 11: Mire and swamp
  • 12: Floodplain
  • 13: Non-riverine Alder-birch-aspen
FOREST_T_1 INT

Second main forest type according to the forest categories defined by the European Environmental Agency, based on the map of Potential Vegetation types for Europe
ID_Dataset STRING

ID of the data set
LAST_DISTU STRING

LAST_DISTURBANCE1_TYPE, type of the last disturbance event. Possible values:

  • 1: Fire
  • 2: Windthrow
  • 3: Flood
  • 4: Landslide Avalanche
  • 5: Logging/harvesting
  • 6: Diseases/insect outbreak
  • 7: OTHER natural
  • 8: OTHER anthropogenic
LAST_DIS_1 INT

LAST_DISTURBANCE1_YEAR, year when disturbance event 1 happened
LAST_DIS_2 INT

LAST_DISTURBANCE1_INTENSITY, intensity of disturbance event 1. Possible values:

  • 1: Light (<20% of the stand disturbed)
  • 2: Moderate (20-70% of the stand disturbed)
  • 3: Stand replacing (>70% of the stand disturbed)
LAST_DIS_3 STRING

LAST_DISTURBANCE2_TYPE, type of the penultimate disturbance event Possible values:

  • 1: Fire
  • 2: Windthrow
  • 3: Flood
  • 4: Landslide Avalanche
  • 5: Logging/harvesting
  • 6: Diseases/insect outbreak
  • 7: OTHER natural
  • 8: OTHER anthropogenic
LAST_DIS_4 INT

LAST_DISTURBANCE2_YEAR, year when disturbance event 2 happened
LAST_DIS_5 INT

LAST_DISTURBANCE2_INTENSITY, intensity of disturbance event 2. Possible values:

  • 1: Light (<20% of the stand disturbed)
  • 2: Moderate (20-70% of the stand disturbed)
  • 3: Stand replacing (>70% of the stand disturbed)
LOCATION STRING

Municipality, Protected Area, or Region in which the primary forest remnant is located
NATURALNES INT

Naturalness level of the primary forest remnant: Possible values:

  • 10: n10 - Primeval Forest
  • 9: n9 - Virgin Forest
  • 8: n8 - Frontier Forest
  • 7: n7 - Near-virgin Forest
  • 6: n6 - Old-growth Forest
  • 5: n5 - Long Untouched Forest
  • 0: UNKNOWN
Notes STRING

Optional additional remarks to the forest points/polygon
OBJECTID STRING

Object ID
PROTECTION INT

Legal protection status of the forest stand as derived from the World Database of Protected. The original IUCN classification was simplified to three classes:

  • Strictly protected (IUCN category I);
  • Protected (IUCN categories II-VI + not classified);
  • Not protected.

In case more updated/precise information was available from our data contributors, these were given priority. Possible values:

  • 0: Not protected
  • 1: Protected
  • 2: Strictly protected
RELEVANT_L STRING

Any relevant sources of information describing the forest remnant (including journal articles, local reports and websites)
Source STRING

Directly attributable source/ownership attribution of the forest remnant data
THREATS_1 INT

Threat (if any) that is most likely to endanger the primary forest remnant. Possible values:

  • 1: Plantation development
  • 2: Anthropogenic Fires
  • 3: Tourism/recreation
  • 4: Infrastructure development (including touristic)
  • 5: Mismanagement
  • 6: Illegal logging
  • 7: Timber and fuelwood extraction
  • 8: Non-Timber Forest Products extraction
  • 9: Urbanization and housing construction
  • 10: Climate change
  • 11: Biodiversity loss
THREATS_2 INT

Threat (if any) that is most likely to endanger the primary forest remnant.
Area_ha DOUBLE

Area of the forest polygon in ha
SHAPE_Area DOUBLE

Area of the polygon
SHAPE_Leng DOUBLE

Length of the polygon

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

European primary forest datasets are provided under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows for most commmercial, noncommercial, and academic uses. See provider terms of use.

Explore with Earth Engine

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var dataset = ee.FeatureCollection('HU_BERLIN/EPFD/V2/polygons');

Map.setCenter(39.64, 61.11, 4);

var styleParams = {
  fillColor: '0F7209',
  color: '000000',
  width: 1.0,
};

dataset = dataset.style(styleParams);

Map.addLayer(dataset, {}, 'European Primary Forest Polygons');
Open in Code Editor
European primary forest data harmonizes 48 different, mostly field-based datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. It includes includes mainly old-growth, late-successional forests, but also some early seral stages and young forests that originated after natural disturbances and natural regeneration, without subsequent …
HU_BERLIN/EPFD/V2/polygons, europe,forest,table
2000-01-01T01:00:00Z/2019-12-31T16:45:00Z
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