Forest Type NFI

This dataset presents an remote sensing based approach for a countrywide mapping of broadleaved and coniferous trees in Switzerland with a spatial resolution of 3 m x 3 m. The data available is a raster of 25 m x 25 m with the fraction of broadleaf trees. The classification approach incorporates a random forest classifier, explanatory variables from multispectral aerial imagery and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data, digitized training polygons and independent validation data from the National Forest Inventory (NFI). Whereas high model overall accuracies (0.99)and kappa (0.98) were achieved, the comparison of the tree type map with independent NFI data revealed significant deviations that are related to underestimations of broadleaved trees (median of 3.17%).