Global Forest Watch Explained

Global Forest Watch
Collapsible:Yes
Programming Language:HTML, Ruby, JavaScript, CSS, Shell
Commercial:No
Owner:World Resources Institute
Current Status:Online

Global Forest Watch (GFW) is an open-source web application to monitor global forests in near real-time. GFW is an initiative of the World Resources Institute (WRI), with partners including Google, USAID, the University of Maryland (UMD), Esri, Vizzuality and many other academic, non-profit, public, and private organizations.

History

Global Forest Watch originally began in 1997 as an initiative to establish a global forest monitoring network, convened by the World Resources Institute and partners.

The initiative was rebooted in 2013 with data from the Center for Global Development derived from NASA's MODIS sensor, with additional layers subsequently added from Google/UMD, Imazon, Terra-i, and NASA.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The second iteration of GFW was released in February 2014, and continues to add information at multiple time scales and spatial resolutions to track deforestation.[6] [7] The GFW Commodities and GFW Fires sub-pages were subsequently released.[8] [9] [10] [11]

GFW contributed notable data and analysis to reporting on the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, including revealing that approximately 35% of the fires in Indonesia occurred in agricultural concessions.[12] [13] [14] This reporting linked the forest fires to specific companies.[15]

Use cases

The GFW platform has been used in a number of notable applications. The forest change data have been used to measure global deforestation rates and to detect and monitor illegal clearing activity, primarily in Indonesia.[16] [17] [18] [19] The NASA Active Fires data, displayed within GFW Fires, have been used to identify illegal burning that has caused the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis (see Haze crisis). Multinational companies use the GFW platform to track their supply chain, purportedly ensuring that they meet "no deforestation" commitments.[20] [21]

Data sets

See also: forest cover and land cover. There are currently five categories of data sets available on the GFW site, which are updated at various frequencies and available at various spatial resolutions.

Forest Change Data

Forest Cover Data

Forest Use Data

Conservation Data

People Data

Awards

Notes and References

  1. News: Protecting Forests with Global Forest Watch 2.0 – David Wheeler and Nigel Sizer. MacDonald. Lawrence. 18 March 2013. CGD Podcast. 10 November 2015. Center for Global Development. Podcast.
  2. News: Global Forest Watch: Measuring deforestation in real-time. Stahl. Susanne. 22 January 2014. The Metric. 10 November 2015. Yale University. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304080611/http://www.epi.yale.edu/the-metric/global-forest-watch-measuring-deforestation-real-time. 4 March 2016. dead.
  3. Alerts of forest disturbance from MODIS imagery. Hammer. Dan. 2014. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. 10.1016/j.jag.2014.04.011. Kraft. Robin. David. Wheeler. 33. 1–9.
  4. High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change. Hansen. Matthew. 2013. Science. 10.1126/science.1244693. 24233722. 2. Popatov. Peter. Rebecca. Moore. Matthew. Hancher. 342. 6160. 850–853.
  5. News: Satellite Data for the People: USAID Supports Launch of New Forest Watch Tool. 21 February 2014. Impact Blog. 11 November 2015. United States Agency for International Development. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094424/https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/usaid-supports-launch-new-forest-watch-tool. dead.
  6. News: New online tool tracks tree loss in 'near real time'. McGrath. Matt. 21 February 2014. BBC News. 10 November 2015.
  7. News: This Mapping Service Lets Us Watch Forests Shrink. Newman. Lily. 21 February 2014. Slate. 10 November 2015.
  8. How a New Map of Palm Oil Plantations Could Help Save Rainforests. Stockton. Nick. 1 July 2014. Wired. 10 November 2015.
  9. Global Forest Watch-Fires: Improving Remote Sensing Through Community Engagement. Hansen. Lexine. 15 February 2015. AAAS 2015 Annual Meeting. 10 November 2015. Ciciarelli. Carolyn. San Jose, CA.
  10. Web site: Global Forest Watch Fires. 10 November 2015. World Resources Institute.
  11. Web site: Global Forest Watch Commodities. 10 November 2015. World Resources Institute.
  12. News: Schonhardt . Sara . 25 September 2015 . 5 Things to Know About the Haze in Southeast Asia . Wall Street Journal . 10 November 2015.
  13. News: Slezak . Michael . 18 September 2015 . Indonesia forced to act as wildfire haze chokes South-East Asia . New Scientist . 10 November 2015.
  14. News: Sessa-Hawkins . Margaret . 6 November 2015 . What you should know about Indonesia's devastating fires . PBS Newshour . 10 November 2015.
  15. News: Tan . Audrey . 4 November 2015 . Haze crisis: Are other firms escaping shame, blame? . The Straits Times . 10 November 2015.
  16. News: Inside The Satellite Detective Agencies That Catch The Companies Destroying The Planet—From Space. Schwartz. Ariel. 16 March 2015. Co.Exist. 10 November 2015.
  17. News: Forest loss has halved in the past 30 years, latest global update shows. Keenan. Rod. 7 September 2015. The Conversation. 11 November 2015.
  18. News: Evaluation of FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment from the user perspective. Matthews. Emily. FAO Corporate Document Repository. 11 November 2015. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Grainger. Alan.
  19. News: Canada and Russia beat tropical countries to top global deforestation list. Freedman. Andrew. 9 April 2015. Mashable. 11 November 2015.
  20. News: How Outer Space is Becoming the Next Internet. Levy. Ari. 23 July 2015. NBC News. 11 November 2015.
  21. News: Unilever, WRI Partner to End Tropical Deforestation. 3 April 2015. Environmental Leader. 11 November 2015.
  22. News: 2015 DATA+ EDITORS' CHOICE AWARDS: World Resources Institute. Collett. Stacy. 2 September 2015. Computerworld. 11 November 2015. 3 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151103161329/http://www.computerworld.com/article/2977562/data-analytics/world-resources-institute.html. dead.
  23. News: Big Data Climate Challenge Winners Announced. Cornish. Sara. 2 September 2014. United Nations Global Pulse. 11 November 2015. 7 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160307105626/http://unglobalpulse.org/big-data-climate-challenge-winners-announced. dead.
  24. Web site: Boreal Awards 2010. 11 November 2010. Boreal Leadership Council. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040713/http://borealcouncil.ca/boreal-awards-2010/. dead.

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