Forest age map covering Germany for 2026

General description: In Lange et. al (2026) we used a digital elevation (BKG 2016) and a digital surface model (BKG 2020) to generate a canopy height model. The latter was used in conjunction with a remotely sensed tree species (groups) map (Blickensdörfer et al., 2024) to obtain area-wide, species-specific tree heights. An allometric model was built by relating tree species, height and age information from Germany's national forest inventory (Thünen Institute, 2018, 2024). This model was applied to the area-wide, species-specific tree heights to estimate forest age on a national scale. Further, the record dates of the height information and a forest cover loss map (Hansen et al., 2013) were used to correct the age estimates. This results in a national-scale forest age map with additional uncertainty information. More information can be found in the related publication and in the UFZ Forest condition monitor web-application. Data description: Data is provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTiff format (projection EPSG:32632). Forest age and standard deviation maps are available in a spatial resolution of 10 m for the year 2026. The forest age map shows the age of forests in years. The standard deviation map shows the standard deviation of the forest age estimation in years. Values of the standard deviation map are scaled by 10 to reduce the file size. Final standard deviation values are obtained by dividing the raw values by 10. Forest areas which encountered forest loss or severe disturbances (see Hansen et al., 2013) are indicated with a value of 0. File descriptions: Data is provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTiff format (projection EPSG:32632). Two files are provided: Forest-age_v02-05-14_Germany_age_masked_cog.tif contains forest age values across Germany for 2026 Forest-age_v02-05-14_Germany_age_sd_masked_cog.tif contains forest age standard deviation values across Germany for 2026 Please note: Forest pixels were selected according to the tree species map from Blickensdörfer et al. (2024).