Google DeepMind and Google Research released Forest Typology 2020. It is a global 10-meter map categorizing land into six forest and land-use types. It includes an annual time series from 2017 to 2025. The map supports the EU’s deforestation regulation by showing forest type and changes. It was built with 1.7 million labeled locations and AlphaEarth embeddings. ForTy achieved 90% accuracy for forest type and 95% for forest vs non-forest. It provides probability scores for each class to allow regional adjustments. The time series reveals hidden changes like natural forests turned into plantations. The map and time series are freely available on Google Earth Engine. The work was co-developed with WRI and IIASA.
What changed
Global maps only indicated whether trees were present, not their type or history.
What it unlocks
Tracking yearly changes in forest type, including conversions from natural forests to plantations or farms.
- 10-meter resolution
- 6 forest and land-use types
- 1.7M labeled locations
- 90% accuracy for forest type
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