Mapping and monitoring global forest canopy height through integration of GEDI and Landsat data

Consistent, large-scale operational monitoring of forest structure is essential for estimating forest-related carbon emissions, analyzing forest degradation, and quantifying the effectiveness of forest restoration initiatives. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar instrument onboard the International Space Station has been collecting unique data on vegetation structure since April 2019. Here, we employed global Landsat analysis-ready data to extrapolate GEDI footprint-level forest canopy height measurements, creating a 30m spatial resolution global forest canopy height map for the year 2019. The global forest height map was compared to the GEDI cross-validation data (RMSE = 6.6m; MAE = 4.45m, R² = 0.62) and available airborne lidar data (RMSE = 9.07m; MAE = 6.36m, R² = 0.61). The demonstrated integration of GEDI data with time-series optical imagery is expected to enable multidecadal historic analysis and operational forward monitoring of forest structure and dynamics. Such capability is vital to support global climate and sustainable development initiatives.