# Hansen Global Forest Change
*data products*

## Specifications
- **level**: L4
- **distributor**: umd
- **gsd m**: {"native":30}
- **file format**: GeoTIFF (unsigned 8-bit, 10x10 degree tiles)
- **access endpoint**: https://storage.googleapis.com/earthenginepartners-hansen/GFC-2025-v1.13/download.html
- **access model**: open
- **licence**: CC BY 4.0
- **primary data portal url**: https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/UMD_hansen_global_forest_change_2025_v1_13
- **use cases**: ["Multi-decadal global tree-cover-loss baseline (2000 to present)","Annual deforestation reporting context for the Hansen Science 2013 lineage","Reference layer underpinning GFW and the GLAD-L and RADD alert systems","REDD+, VCM, and EUDR baseline tree-cover and forest-loss inputs"]
- **practical limitations**: ["Tree cover loss is stand-replacement disturbance regardless of cause (plantations, fire, selective logging, agricultural clearing) and is not synonymous with permanent deforestation","Gain layer is frozen at 2000 to 2012 and has not been updated in any version since initial release","Pre-2011 versus post-2011 methodological discontinuity; direct rate comparisons across that boundary require methodological caution","Reported as a relative indicator of spatiotemporal trends; not a definitive area measurement for regulatory reporting","Accuracy metrics from Hansen et al. 2013 paper widely cited (about 97 percent user accuracy for loss) but the paper body was inaccessible from a tier 1 source in this research pass"]
- **known artefacts**: ["Boreal fire loss, smallholder clearing, selective logging, and short-cycle plantation clearing detection has improved markedly in the reprocessed post-2011 period; pre-2011 detection is systematically lower-sensitivity for these classes","8-bit quantisation in the Landsat composites limits radiometric discrimination relative to native 16-bit Landsat products"]
- **last verified date**: "2026-05-18T00:00:00.000Z"
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-verified
- **deployment context**: orbital

## Compositional position
- defor (topics) --[topic_capabilities]--> Hansen Global Forest Change
- eudr (regulations) --[satisfied-by]--> Hansen Global Forest Change

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/data_products/hansen-global-forest-change
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)