A reporting framework for Sustainable Development Goal 15: Multi-scale monitoring of forest degradation using MODIS, Landsat and Sentinel data

摘要

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 15.1.1 proposes to quantify "Forest area as a proportion of total land area" in order to achieve SDG target 15.1. While area under forest cover can provide useful information regarding discrete changes in forest cover, it does not provide any insight on subtle changes within the broad vegetation class, e.g. forest degradation. Continental or national-level studies, mostly utilizing coarse-scale satellite data, are likely to fail in capturing these changes due to the fine spatial and long temporal characteristics of forest degradation. Yet, these long-term changes affect forest structure, composition and function, thus ultimately limiting successful implementation of SDG targets.