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, 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 (Blickensdörfer 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).
Suggested Data Citation
German Aerospace Center (DLR) (2025): Forest Canopy Cover Loss (FCCL) - Germany - Monthly, Administrative Level. https://doi.org/10.15489/jctru9ze1t42
Coverage
Geographic Boundaries
North:	54.99°
West:	5.99°
East:	15.02°
South:	47.30°
Time Period
Start date:	2017-09-01
End date:	2024-09-30
More Information
Keywords:	Canopy Cover Loss, Disturbance, Forest, Germany, Landsat, Multispectral, Sentinel-2, opendata
Contact:	Frank.Thonfeld@dlr.de
Access / Use Restriction:	License
Data Use Guidelines	Creative Commons BY 4.0
Links
Mission / Project Information
Reference	https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030562 Thonfeld, F.; Gessner, U.; Holzwarth, S.; Kriese, J.; da Ponte, E.; Huth, J.; Kuenzer, C. A First Assessment of Canopy Cover Loss in Germany’s Forests after the 2018–2020 Drought Years. Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 562.
DOI (of Dataset)	https://doi.org/10.15489/jctru9ze1t42 Digital Object Identifier
EOC Geoservice Dataset Landing Page	https://geoservice.dlr.de/web/datasets/fccl_stats Dataset Landing Page
Downloading Data
HTTP Download (Forest Canopy Cover Loss)	https://download.geoservice.dlr.de/FCCL/files/statistics/ HTTP Download
Data Visualization Service
EOC Geoservice Map Context (eoc:fcclde)	https://geoservice.dlr.de/web/maps/eoc:fcclde-stats EOC Geoservice Map Context
FCCL at Pixel Level	https://geoservice.dlr.de/eoc/land/wms? FCCL_DE_P1M_VEC
FCCL at Administrative Level, Federal State	https://geoservice.dlr.de/eoc/land/wms? FCCL_DE_P1M_LAN
FCCL at Administrative Level, District	https://geoservice.dlr.de/eoc/land/wms? FCCL_DE_P1M_KRS
FCCL at Administrative Level, Municipality	https://geoservice.dlr.de/eoc/land/wms? FCCL_DE_P1M_GEM