Change in forest cover detected by satellite imagery

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Change in forest cover detected by satellite imagery is a provincial polygonal vector database produced using automated analysis of Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. This analysis aims to detect changes in forest cover throughout southern Quebec.

The database includes disturbances of anthropogenic or natural origin, identified from images acquired during the summer period and analyzed at a resolution of 10 m × 10 m. It only contains detectable disturbances for which no official information was available at the time of the analysis. To determine if a disturbance is already known, the analysis compares the detected changes to the following official databases:

• Harvesting and other silvicultural interventions

• Forest fires

• Epidemic, wind and ice storm

• Forest infrastructures

Polygons remain in the product as long as no official source confirms the nature or origin of the disturbance. As soon as official information becomes available, the element is removed from the diaper during the next release of the product.

The analysis of the detected change is carried out once a year, during the months of October and November, using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery captured between June and September.This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).