Forest cover dataset with 30 m spatial resolution in the Great Mekong Subregion and Malaysia (2005/2010)

The Southeast Asian region hosts a wealth of diverse forest resources, playing a critical role in pivotal ecological functions including watershed conservation, soil retention, carbon sequestration, and the regulation of regional climate dynamics. Spanning the territories traversed by the Lancang-Mekong River, the largest river system in Southeast Asia, the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) encompasses an array of nations, including China (Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. In order to delineate the spatial coverage and distribution of forest resources within the GMS, this dataset is the result of an extensive international collaboration involving the collection of substantial ground-truth data and Landsat TM/ETM+ imagery. Employing an object-oriented classification approach and machine learning classification algorithms, spatial datasets of forest cover for the years 2005 and 2010 at a 30 m resolution were generated for the GMS and Malaysia. The accuracy of the dataset's validation exceeded 85%. Comprising 16 files, this dataset encompasses raster data (*.tif files) for the years 2005 and 2010 of eight economies (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, China's Yunnan, and China's Guangxi). The data is projected in the WGS-84 coordinate system with a latitude and longitude projection, and each economy's data includes a buffer zone extending 5 km beyond its respective borders.This dataset not only facilitates an enhanced understanding of alterations in forest coverage within this region but also serves as a scientific foundation for Southeast Asian forest policies, sustainable forest resource management, as well as investigations pertaining to ecological environments and global climate change. The data product is supported by the "Forest Cover and Carbon Mapping in the Greater Mekong Subregion and Malaysia" project, initiated by the Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet). This collaborative effort includes governmental bodies, research institutions, and academic professionals from the economies within the Greater Mekong Subregion and Malaysia. The overarching objective of the project is to assess the impact of forest cover, forest dynamics, and carbon storage on both the regional environment and global climate change.