Greater Kruger National Park wall-to-wall 30 m GEDI Canopy Metrics 2007-2022

This dataset contains the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) canopy metrics of relative height 98th percentile (RH98), fractional canopy cover (COV), and foliage height diversity (FHD), extended wall-to-wall at a 30-m resolution for the Great Kruger National Park region of South Africa for 2007-2010 and 2015-2022. These data were created by modeling a sample of the GEDI Level 2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics at the 25- m footprint level with wall-to-wall spatial datasets including Landsat, PALSAR, topography derived from NASADEM and estimated soils data from iSDAsoil. The data are suitable for analyzing single time and change in woody canopy structure over areas of interest within the savanna ecosystems of the region.

There are 36 data files in cloud-optimized GeoTIFF (.tif) format in this dataset.

This dataset contains the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) canopy metrics of relative height 98th percentile (RH98), fractional canopy cover (COV), and foliage height diversity (FHD), extended wall-to-wall at a 30-m resolution for the Great Kruger National Park region of South Africa for 2007-2010 and 2015-2022. 

Project: Biodiversity

The ORNL DAAC archives Biological Diversity datasets from research that contribute to the understanding of the complexity, structure, function, and interactions within and among species, ecosystems, and genetic variations, and how and why they are changing. These datasets help explore how biodiversity contributes to ecosystem health, stability, and services, as well as threats due to human activities and environmental changes.

Acknowledgement

This research was funded by the NASA Biological Diversity and Ecological Conservation, grant number 80NSSC21K1716

Spatial overage: Great Kruger National Park region of South Africa

Spatial Resolution: 30 m

Temporal Coverage: 2007-2010 and 2015-2022

Temporal Resolution: Annual

Site Boundaries: Latitude and longitude are given in decimal degrees.

Site	Westernmost Longitude	Easternmost Longitude	Northernmost Latitude	Southernmost Latitude
Great Kruger National Park region, South Africa	29.73809	32.055309	-22.27491	-26.14118

Data File Information

There are 36 data files in cloud-optimized GeoTIFF (.tif) format:12 files for total fractional canopy cover from 0 to 1, 12 files for foliage height diversity index, and 12 files for relative height 98^th percentile from 0 to 40 m.  All file groups cover the periods 2007-2010, and 2015-2022.

File names and descriptions

For all file groups, YYYY is 2007-2010 and 2015-2022. 

• fractional_canopy_cover_YYYY.tif – Total fractional canopy cover from 0 to 1. The definition corresponds to the “cover” metric from the GEDI Level 2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics product as described in the L2B data dictionary (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/980/gedi_l2b_dictionary_P003_v2.html): “Total canopy cover, defined as the percent of the ground covered by the vertical projection of canopy material.” Details are given in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/588/GEDI_FCCVPM_ATBD_v1.0.pdf)
• foliage_height_diversity_YYYY.tif – Foliage height diversity index. The definition corresponds to the “fhd_normal” metric from the GEDI Level 2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics product as described in the L2B data dictionary (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/980/gedi_l2b_dictionary_P003_v2.html): “Foliage height diversity index calculated by vertical foliage profile normalized by total plant area index.” Details are given in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/588/GEDI_FCCVPM_ATBD_v1.0.pdf)
• relative_height_98_YYYY.tif – Relative height 98^th percentile from 0 to 40 m. The definition corresponds to the 98^th “rh” metric from the GEDI Level 2A Geolocated Elevation and Height Metrics product as described in the L2A data dictionary (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/586/gedi_l2a_dictionary_P001_v1.html): “Relative height metrics at 1 % interval.” Details are given in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document ( https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/581/GEDI_WF_ATBD_v1.0.pdff)

Note: This study obtained data from the following sources:

• The GEDI l2b Dictionary, the GEDI Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents, and NASADEM data were obtained from https://lpdaac.usgs.gov, maintained by the NASA EOSDIS Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 
• isDAsoil data were obtained from https://www.isda-africa.com/isdasoil/open-soil-data/

The data are suitable for analyzing single time and change in woody canopy structure over areas of interest within the savanna ecosystems of the region.

The accuracy of the random forest model for each canopy metric was assessed by its root mean square error, coefficient of determination, and mean of residuals (bias). The accuracy of GEDI’s RH98 values with respect to airborne lidar were assessed for the region by Li et al. (2023). We also compared the model predicted RH98 to an opportunistic sample of field canopy height measurements. The accuracy of canopy cover and FHD for either the GEDI footprints or the model predicted values were not compared to any field measurements.

Figure 2. Model accuracy.

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) canopy metrics of relative height 98^th percentile (RH98), fractional canopy cover (COV), and foliage height diversity (FHD) were extended wall-to-wall at a 30-m resolution for the Great Kruger National Park region of South Africa for 2007-2010 and 2015-2022. These data were created by modeling a sample of the GEDI Level 2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics at the 25-m footprint level with wall-to-wall spatial datasets including Landsat, PALSAR, topography derived from NASADEM and estimated soils data from iSDAsoil.

isDAsoil. https://www.isda-africa.com/isdasoil/open-soil-data/

NASA EOSDIS Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/

Xiaoxuan, L., K. Wessells, J. Armston, S. Hancock, R. Mathieu, R. Main, L. Naidoo, B. Erasmus, and R. Scholes. 2023. First validation of GEDI canopy heights in African savannas. Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 285, 2023.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2022.113402