Panama Vegetation Time Series Maps

Panama Vegetation Time Series Maps for 1990-2016 with preliminary 2020 deforestation data.

(the official 2020/21 map will be made available at the end of the 2021 mapping period).

The following components are provided:

"PVCTSYYYYvN" are 30m resolution raster maps resulting from compositing of 60-100 classified Landsat images for each time step, where YYYY is the nominal year of the compositing time period. (1991 includes images from 1987-1991. 2001 includes images from 1997-2001. 2006 includes images from 2002-2006. 2011 includes images from 2007-2011. 2016 includes images from 2012-2016.) Maps are all in GeoTiff format.

"PVCTS_key.lyr" is a layer file that can be applied in ArcGIS for optimal display of categories.

"PVCTSColorKey" provides more detailed description of categories and can be used to create a key in other software. More details about the land cover classes can be found in the "PVCTSv2_SupplementaryInfo" file.

"PVCTSdeforest7cat_YYXX" are corresponding deforestation maps for activity occurring between years YY and XX.

"Deforest7cat.lyr" provides the layer file that can be applied in ArcGIS for suggested viewing and "PVCTS_Deforestation_ColorKey" provides a description of the categories and can be used to create a key in other software.

"PVCTSv2_SupplementaryInfo" provides information about the methods and data in the PVCTS composite and deforestation files. Accuracy assessments and error adjustments for the current PVCTS version are included in this document.

"MaxAgeYYYY" are maximum-vegetation-age raster maps based on aggregation of clearing observations from all images in the USGS Landsat archive with cloud-cover <70%. These are 30m resolution rasters in GeoTiff format. Values indicate the maximum age that the vegetation can be in year YYYY based on the most recent clearing observation, or 99 if never observed to be cleared. A value of -1 means that the pixel was not observed to be cleared in year YYYY but it was observed to be cleared in year YYYY+1. A clearing observation occurs when the NBR (Normalized Burn Index) is below a season-based threshold (1000 to 3000) in a cloud-masked image. Many pixels are not observed each year due to cloud cover, thus these figures represent Maximum age (vegetation might be younger). The information in these layers has already been applied to the PVCTS maps, but not vice-versa (no other data is taken into account beyond NBR threshold).

"metadata_spatial_ss" provides the spatial metadata for all GeoTiff files. Projection is in WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_17N.