ForestPaths project partners, namely Technical University of Munich and VITO, have released a suite of satellite-based map products covering forest disturbances, structure and tree genus composition across continental Europe. The datasets are publicly available on Zenodo and can be explored through dedicated web-mapping applications. Together, they provide a detailed picture of the state and recent history of Europe's forests, which cover more than one third of the continent and provide essential services ranging from carbon storage to water regulation and recreation. 

Forest Disturbance Atlas  

Europe's forests are constantly changing. Storms flatten trees, bark beetles kill entire stands, wildfires burn through hillsides and millions of hectares are logged for timer production every year. Understanding where and when these disturbances happen, and how frequently the same areas are hit, is fundamental to assessing how much carbon forests are actually storing, how biodiversity is faring and whether forests are recovering fast enough to meet climate and nature goals. 

The European Forest Disturbance Atlas addresses this need by tracking forest disturbances across 38 European countries using Landsat satellite imagery at 30-metre resolution, from 1985 through to 2023. It is available on Zenodo, as well as through an interactive viewer.  

A key feature of the atlas is its ability to record multiple disturbance events at the same location over time: for instance, a forest area struck by a windstorm and later harvested or burned again. Earlier European products could not capture this, likely leading to underestimates of the true scale of forest change. Over the full period, the atlas records a total disturbed forest area of 439,000 km² (around 22% of Europe's forests) rising to 610,000 km² when counting areas hit more than once. Of all disturbed areas, 72% experienced one disturbance event, 18.9% two and 9.1% three or more. Timber harvesting accounts for approximately 79% of all disturbances, wind and bark beetle for 12% and fire for 9%. Multiple disturbances are most common in southern Europe, particularly Portugal and Spain, and in short-rotation plantation regions such as southern France and Hungary. 

Knowing which agent caused a disturbance matters as much as knowing that one occurred. A forest killed by bark beetles, for example, may leave dead standing wood that temporarily stores carbon but is highly vulnerable to fire, whereas a clearcut removes carbon from the landscape almost immediately. Having this level of detail going back to 1985 gives policymakers and researchers a baseline that simply did not exist before. The full processing code can be found here. 

Forest Structure Maps  

How tall are Europe's trees? How densely do they cover the ground? How complex is the layering within a forest canopy? These questions matter far beyond academic interest. Taller, denser and more structurally complex forests generally store more carbon, support greater biodiversity and are more resilient to disturbance. Conversely, forests with low canopy cover or simple vertical structure may signal recent disturbance, intensive management or early-stage regeneration — all of which have implications for carbon accounting and nature conservation targets. 

Three datasets answering these questions, namely canopy height, canopy cover at 5 metres height and foliage height diversity (FHD), have been produced at 10-metre resolution for the year 2020 using Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite data, calibrated against measurements from two spaceborne laser instruments, GEDI and ICESat-2. Foliage height diversity in particular, which measures the complexity of vertical canopy layering using Shannon's diversity index, is an indicator of ecological richness with higher values typically associated with older, more structurally diverse forests that support greater wildlife habitat.  

To verify accuracy, researchers compared their satellite-based estimates against aircraft-mounted laser measurements at around 3,400 sites across 18 countries — a far more precise but expensive and time-consuming method. The results confirm that the maps successfully capture forest structure across an entire continent at a level of detail that would have been impossible to achieve through ground or aerial surveys alone. Canopy height estimates were on average within about 5 metres of the aircraft measurements and the maps reliably captured patterns of canopy cover and vertical forest complexity across Europe's diverse forest types, from boreal Scandinavia to Mediterranean woodlands. This gives scientists, conservationists and policymakers a consistent, continent-wide picture of forest structure that is freely available and ready to use. 

Tree Genus Map  

Not all forests are equal when it comes to climate and biodiversity. A dense stand of spruce planted in rows stores carbon differently from a mixed oak woodland, responds differently to drought and supports an entirely different community of wildlife. Knowing which tree genera dominate where across Europe, at fine spatial detail, is therefore essential for modelling how forests will respond to climate change, for planning species diversification and for assessing progress towards nature restoration goals. 

A map of the dominant tree genus across Europe at 10-metre resolution covers eight classes: Larix, Pinus, Picea, Fagus, Quercus, other needleleaf, other broadleaf and no woody vegetation. It was produced using a machine learning model trained on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite data combined with topographic and climate information, drawing on field measurements from national forest inventories in Flanders, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as private forest inventories in Finland.  

The map reveals clear geographic patterns in Europe's forest composition: pine forests dominate in northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula, oak and beech are most prevalent in central and western Europe and spruce dominates across central Europe and Scandinavia. The model performed particularly well in conifer-dominated forests, where tree genera tend to be more spectrally distinct. Broadleaf forests were more challenging to classify—oak in particular can appear spectrally similar to other broadleaf species in satellite imagery. Despite these limitations, the resulting map provides a continent-wide view of tree genus distributions at a spatial resolution relevant for forest management, biodiversity assessment and climate modelling. 

The forest structure and tree genus maps are also available in an interactive viewer here.  

At a time when European forests face mounting pressure from climate change, increasing natural disturbances and competing demands for timber and conservation, these openly accessible datasets provide a consistent, continent-wide evidence base to inform the policies and management decisions that will shape the future of Europe's forests.