Forest characteristics and reflectance spectra of simulated temperate forests under different uncertainty regimes

Fischer, Samuel M.; Fischer, Rico; Huth, Andreas

doi:10.5281/zenodo.16748242

Published August 5, 2025 | Version v1

Dataset Open

Forest characteristics and reflectance spectra of simulated temperate forests under different uncertainty regimes

1. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ
2. Julius Kühn-Institut
3. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
4. Osnabrück University

This dataset contains attributes and reflectance spectra of 900,000 simulated temperate forest patches, generated with the ForestFactory and radiative transfer components of the FORMIND model. The data mimic those gathered via hyperspectral satellites such as EnMAP and may be used to train and analyze models for inferring forest attributes from hyperspectral data. A detailed description of the methods used to generate the dataset will be available in an upcoming publication.

Technical info

Dataset Structure

The dataset is organized into separate CSV files, each corresponding to a specific uncertainty regime, modelled by randomizing input parameters or adding noise to the reflectance spectra.

File	Uncertainty Factor
`No uncertainty.csv`	No uncertainty
`LAI uncertainty.csv`	Uncertainty in the Leaf Area Index (LAI) when simulating the reflectance spectra
`Leaf parameter uncertainty.csv`	Uncertainty in leaf parameters
`Leaf structure param. uncertainty.csv`	Uncertainty in leaf structure parameters
`Leaf inclination param. uncertainty.csv`	Uncertainty in leaf inclination parameters
`Soil wetness uncertainty.csv`	Uncertainty in soil wetness

Details on the uncertainty factors are provided in the included README.md file or in the publication.

Data Format

Each CSV file starts with a header row, followed by rows of data. Each data row corresponds to a 20m x 20m forest patch. The forest patches are generated independently from one another.

Each file contains the following columns:

Feature	Unit	Description
biomass	t ODM / ha	Biomass of the forest patch
lai	-	Leaf Area Index of the forest patch
gpp	t ODM / ha / year	Gross Primary Production of the forest patch
npp	t ODM / ha / year	Net Primary Production of the forest patch
dbh_entropy	-	Basal-area weighted entropy of the diameter at breast height; a measure for structural diversity
species_entropy	-	Basal-area weighted shannon entropy of the species of the present individuals
shannon_diversity	-	Shannon diversity index of the present species
R_409.68, ..., R_2499.14	-	Simulated reflectance at wavelengths from 409.68 nm to 2499.14 nm (one column per wavelength); the values are fractions between 0 and 1

Files