Tree species composition of the upper canopy layer of the forest management units of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Italy)

Description This dataset contains a geospatial layer in GeoPackage (GPKG) format describing the relative species-specific upper canopy cover of forest management units located within public forest areas of the Autonomous Province of Trento (northern Italy). Each polygon represents a forest unit defined in the provincial forest management system. For each unit, the dataset provides the upper canopy cover and the relative species-specific upper canopy cover. The dataset is intended for applications such as: forest resource assessment ecological and biodiversity analyses forest management planning spatial modelling of forest composition The data refer to forests within the administrative boundaries of the Autonomous Province of Trento, located in the Trentino-Alto Adige region of Italy. Data format The dataset is distributed as a GeoPackage (.gpkg) containing 121,177 polygon geometries representing forest management units. Each feature includes attributes describing: the reference year of the forest management plan; the area of the forest unit in squared meters; the total upper canopy cover of the unit expressed in fractions from 0.2 to 1; the relative species-specific upper canopy cover within the unit expressed in fractions from 0 to 1. Attribute description Column Description Year Reference year of the forest management plan Area Area of the forest unitin squared meters Upper_canopy_cover Total upper canopy cover of the unit expressed in fractions from 0.2 to 1 Abies_alba – Ulmus_minor Relative species-specific upper canopy cover within the forest unit expressed in fractions from 0 to 1 Other_broadleaved Aggregated proportion of minor broadleaved species not individually listed Other_conifers Aggregated proportion of minor conifer species not individually listed Species columns correspond to the following tree species (scientific names): Abies alba Acer campestre Acer platanoides Acer pseudoplatanus Ailanthus altissima Alnus alnobetula Alnus glutinosa Alnus incana Betula pendula Carpinus betulus Castanea sativa Celtis australis Corylus avellana Fagus sylvatica Fraxinus excelsior Fraxinus ornus Laburnum alpinum Laburnum anagyroides Larix decidua Ostrya carpinifolia Picea abies Pinus cembra Pinus mugo Pinus nigra Pinus sylvestris Populus alba Populus tremula Prunus avium Quercus cerris Quercus ilex Quercus petraea Quercus pubescens Quercus robur Robinia pseudoacacia Salix alba Salix caprea Salix cinerea Salix eleagnos Sorbus aria Sorbus aucuparia Taxus baccata Tilia cordata Tilia platyphyllos Ulmus glabra Ulmus minor Notes Data were collected on a wide range of years (2010-2021) thus it could be that the species cover proportions changed over time. The cover proportions are estimated by visual inspection by trained forest managers, and not through full calipering of the area or other objective reproducible method, thus they should be intended as estimates rather than exact value. The cover proportions refer only to the upper canopy layer of the forest.