Maps of persistent forests of the Polish Carpathians 1860-2023

The dataset contains two maps of the persistent forests created by combining historical maps with remote sensing data to identify areas characterized by forest continuity dating back to the 1860s, assuming these forests have persisted for much longer. Such persistent forests are likely to have developed complexity and habitat characteristics comparable to old-growth or primary forests and thus may have high conservation value.

We used two approaches to identify persistent forests. In the first approach, persistent forests were defined as those that existed in both the oldest (1860s) and the most recent (2023) forest cover maps (persistent forests - bitemporal analysis). In the second approach, persistent forests were defined as those that persisted across the full set of historical and contemporary datasets (1860s, 1930s, 1970s, 2013, and 2023; persistent forests - multitemporal analysis). Forests that existed in 2023 but were absent in at least one previous period are considered non-persistent. The analysis covers the entire territory of the Polish Carpathians (20,000 km2).

Online, quick look version of the data is available at https://tinyurl.com/ForestsPL AcknowledgementsThe study was part of a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952327.