High-resolution wetland year count for Canada (1984-2016)

The wetland year count data included in this product is national in scope (entire forested ecosystem) and represents a wall to wall wetland characterization for 1984-2016 (Wulder et al. 2018). This product was generated using both annual gap free composite reflectance images and annual forest change maps following the Virtual Land Cover Engine (VLCE) process (see Hermosilla et al. 2018), over the 650 million ha forested ecosystems of Canada. Elements of the VLCE classification approach are inclusion of disturbance information in the processes as well as ensuring class transitions over time are logical. Further, a Hidden Markov Model is implemented to assess individual year class likelihoods to reduce variability and possible noise in year-on-year class assignments (for instances when class likelihoods are similar). The values can range from 0 to 33 denoting the number of years between 1984 and 2016 that a pixel was classified as wetland or wetland-treed in the VLCE data cube.

For an overview on the data, image processing, and time series change detection methods applied, as well as information on independent accuracy assessment of the data, see Hermosilla et al. (2016; http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17538947.2016.1187673). A detailed description of the VLCE process and the subsequently generated land cover product, including an accuracy assessment, please see

Hermosilla et al. (2018). The focused wetland analyses can be found described in Wulder et al (2018).

Geographic extent:

Canada's forested ecosystems (~ 650 Mha)

Time period:

1985–2011