Benchmark maps of 39 years of secondary forest age for Brazil

Celso H. L. Silva Junior; Viola H. A. Heinrich; Ana T. G. Freire; Igor S. Broggio; Thais M. Rosan; Juan Doblas; Liana O. Anderson; Guillaume X. Rousseau; Yosio E. Shimabukuro; Carlos A. Silva; Joanna I. House; Luiz E. O. C. Aragão

doi:10.5281/zenodo.8190133

Published April 28, 2026 | Version v8.1.0

Dataset Open

Benchmark maps of 39 years of secondary forest age for Brazil

1. National Institute for Space Research
2. University of Bristol
3. Federal University of Maranhão
4. State University of Northern Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro
5. University of Exeter
6. National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters
7. State University of Maranhão
8. University of Maryland

Benchmark maps of 39 years of secondary forest age for Brazil

Overview

Annual maps of secondary forest dynamics for Brazil (1986–2024), derived from MapBiomas Collection 10.1 land-use and land-cover data processed in Google Earth Engine. Only the Forest Formation class is included.

This dataset is an update of the original benchmark maps published in Scientific Data (2020), now extended to 39 years of coverage (1986–2024) using MapBiomas Collection 10.1 as input data.

Contact: Celso H. L. Silva Junior — celsohlsj@gmail.com

Products

Product	Description	Period	Files
Increment	New secondary forest pixels in year t — pixels transitioning from anthropic use (year t−1) to forest (year t)	1986–2024	39
Extent	Binary presence/absence of secondary forest — accumulated from prior year or re-established	1986–2024	39
Age	Cumulative years of continuous secondary forest presence since the last disturbance	1986–2024	39
Loss	Secondary forest pixels cleared in year t	1987–2024	38

Total: 155 files

Technical Specifications

Parameter	Value
Spatial resolution	30 m
Coordinate reference system	EPSG:4326 (Geographic, WGS84)
File format	Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF (COG)
Analysis period — Increment, Extent, Age	1986–2024
Analysis period — Loss	1987–2024
Input data	MapBiomas Collection 10.1
Forest class	Forest Formation only
Version	v8.1
File naming convention	ybyra_secondary_forest_{product}_brazil_v8_1_{year}.tif

Methodology Summary

The mapping algorithm operates in four sequential steps applied annually to the MapBiomas land-cover time series:

Step	Description
1	Reclassify MapBiomas classes into forest / non-forest binary maps; apply Oil Palm and Water masks
2	Identify annual increment: pixels transitioning from anthropic use (year t−1) to forest (year t)
3	Accumulate extent and detect loss: presence maintained from prior year or cleared
4	Calculate age: cumulative years of continuous secondary forest presence

Key masking layers

Mask	Source
Oil Palm extent	Descals et al. (2021)
Water bodies	MapBiomas Collection 10.1 (class 33)
Forest cover	MapBiomas Collection 10.1 (classes 3 and 6)

Data Access

Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF — Source Cooperative (this repository)

All annual COG files are available directly via HTTP/HTTPS for cloud-native access (GDAL, rasterio, QGIS, R terra, etc.):

Base URL: https://data.source.coop/ybyra-br/secondary-forest/

Browse: https://source.coop/ybyra-br/secondary-forest

Google Earth Engine (GEE) — multi-band assets

The full dataset is also available as multi-band GEE assets (one band per year, named classification_YYYY):

var age       = ee.Image('users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_forest_age_collection10_1_v8_1');
var extent    = ee.Image('users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_forest_extent_collection10_1_v8_1');
var increment = ee.Image('users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_forest_increment_collection10_1_v8_1');
var loss      = ee.Image('users/ybyrabr/public/secondary_forest_loss_collection10_1_v8_1');

STAC Catalog

A SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) is available for programmatic discovery:
https://celsohlsj.github.io/ybyrastac/

Complete File List

Increment (1986–2024) — 39 files

Extent (1986–2024) — 39 files

Age (1986–2024) — 39 files

Loss (1987–2024) — 38 files

How to Cite

This dataset is free to use. If you use it in your research, please cite the original paper and the dataset repository. We also welcome users to contact us for collaboration opportunities.

Paper

Silva Junior, C.H.L., Heinrich, V.H.A., Freire, A.T.G., Broggio, I.S., Rosan, T.M., Doblas, J., Anderson, L.O., Rousseau, G.X., Shimabukuro, Y.E., Silva, C.A., House, J.I., Aragão, L.E.O.C. Benchmark maps of 33 years of secondary forest age for Brazil. Scientific Data (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00600-4

Dataset (Zenodo)

Silva Junior, C.H.L. et al. Benchmark maps of 39 years of secondary forest age for Brazil. Zenodo (2026). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8190133

Code

The GEE JavaScript code used to produce this dataset is available at:
https://github.com/celsohlsj/gee_brazil_sv

Funding

This dataset was produced with support from:

Funding agency	Grant / Process
CNPq — Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico	Process 401741/2023-0 (YbYrá-BR Project)
CNPq	Process 304664/2024-3 (Research Productivity Fellowship)

License

This dataset is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

You are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, provided appropriate credit is given, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

Total: 155 files · 4 products · Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF (COG) · 30 m · EPSG:4326 · v8.1

Files

files.txt

Files (17.2 kB)

Name	Size	Download all
files.txt md5:b671288791d5c4fb78cb3a536eecd220	17.2 kB	Preview Download

Additional details

Is published in: Journal article: 10.1038/s41597-020-00600-4 (DOI)

National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
YBYRÁ-BR: Quantificação Espaço-temporal das Emissões e Remoções de CO2 pelas Florestas Brasileiras 401741/2023-0
National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
Aprimorando a Capacidade do Brasil para Reportar Emissões e Remoções em Florestas Secundárias 304664/2024-3

Repository URL: https://github.com/celsohlsj/gee_brazil_sv
Programming language: JavaScript
Development Status: Active

	All versions	This version
Views	3,490	100
Downloads	15,374	30
Data volume	2.6 TB	6.2 MB

Benchmark maps of 39 years of secondary forest age for Brazil

Overview

Products

Technical Specifications

Methodology Summary

Key masking layers

Data Access

Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF — Source Cooperative (this repository)

Google Earth Engine (GEE) — multi-band assets

STAC Catalog

Complete File List

Increment (1986–2024) — 39 files

Extent (1986–2024) — 39 files

Age (1986–2024) — 39 files

Loss (1987–2024) — 38 files

How to Cite

Paper

Dataset (Zenodo)

Code

Funding

License

files.txt

Files (17.2 kB)

Related works

Funding

Software

Benchmark maps of 39 years of secondary forest age for Brazil

Authors/Creators

Description

Benchmark maps of 39 years of secondary forest age for Brazil

Overview

Products

Technical Specifications

Methodology Summary

Key masking layers

Data Access

Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF — Source Cooperative (this repository)

Google Earth Engine (GEE) — multi-band assets

STAC Catalog

Complete File List

Increment (1986–2024) — 39 files

Extent (1986–2024) — 39 files

Age (1986–2024) — 39 files

Loss (1987–2024) — 38 files

How to Cite

Paper

Dataset (Zenodo)

Code

Funding

License

Files

files.txt

Files (17.2 kB)

Additional details

Related works

Funding

Software