The Reference Data for Accuracy Assessment of the Global Forest Watch Tree Cover 2000 in China

Remote-sensing products have emerged as key tools in forest cover monitoring. Their quality vary spatially, local validations are recommended before using the data for inventory and management tasks. We conducted a validation based on a visual interpretation procedure using high-resolution optical imagery on Google Earth to map the uncertainties and inaccuracies of GFW treecover 2000 in China. The reference data has a total amount of 96 364 sample pixels collected using spatially stratified random sampling method.
· The reference data provides a solid basis for evaluating the classification accuracy of remote sensing products.
· The data can benefit researchers who use GFW products in their study, and looking for reference data to evaluate the accuracy of their remote sensing products.
· The dataset be used for accuracy assessment of remote sensing products like GFW, and provide further details on the cause of classification errors.
· The reference pixels have labelled land type information, forest type and image year acquired on Google Earth. It provides an additional reference source for land change study.