The Decadal Forest Change Mapping (DFCM) Project focuses on creating forest cover maps to provide a baseline for future monitoring of forest resources. The University of Maryland (UMD), South Dakota State University (SDSU), and NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center are cooperating to complete this mapping effort using high resolution Landsat Thematic Mapper datasets from circa 1990 to circa 2000 for the 12 Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) landscapes. For the purposes of this project, two time frames have been defined. Time 1 represents satellite imagery obtained from Landsat 4 and 5 missions during the 1980's and 1990's. Time 2 represents imagery predominantly from the Landsat 7 mission during the early 2000's. These data allow for a decadal study (circa 1990 to circa 2000) of forest change over the basin.

This is the first version of the product and subsequent versions will be produced when new, improved input data are obtained.

For each landscape, the DCFM product suite includes:

• 1. Basin- wide Forest Cover image (Derived from MODIS data collected over 4 years, 2000 - 2004)
• 2. Composite Landsat Images

- Time 1 Landsat composite image from circa 1990

- Time 2 Landsat composite image from circa 2000

- Combined Time 1 and Time 2 composite cloud free image

• 3. Forest cover and forest cover change map from circa 1990 to 2000
• 4. Ancillary Data Sets

- Per-pixel quality assurance flags for Time 1 and Time 2 image composites

• 5. Metadata

Decadal Change Forest Mapping product suites are available for 3 landscapes:

The individual Decadal Change Forest Mapping products, product suites and posters can also be downloaded from the CARPE Data Explorer. Other maps can also be downloaded from the Map Library.

Please cite the following reference for the DFCM products:

Hansen, M.C., Roy, D., Lindquist, E., Justice, C.O., and Altstatt, A. (2008) A method for integrating MODIS and Landsat data for systematic monitoring of forest cover and change in Central Africa. Remote Sensing of Environment, 112 2495-2513.