RIGOR-MED_Reference_Database_20260130

Reference Forest Disturbance Database developed to support the validation of multiple forest disturbance mapping products within the RIGOR-MED project. The database was completed through systematic photointerpretation in Collect Earth Online (CEO) and covers nearly 2,900 sampling units and more than 3,400 disturbance polygons across 13 Southern European countries for the period 2000–2023. The database is distributed as two interoperable GeoPackage (GPKG) files: Disturbance polygons delineating areas where forest disturbance was visually confirmed. Each polygon includes core attributes such as disturbance type (clear-cutting, forest fire, pest damage, windthrow, other), year of onset, an ordinal magnitude estimate, an indicative time to recovery of vegetation cover, the primary imagery source used for interpretation, and interpreter notes. Sampling units (250 × 250 m) used as the operational validation frame. Each unit includes a unique identifier and a change/no-change label, enabling both binary and thematic accuracy assessments. Reference information was compiled via systematic photo-interpretation of multi-sensor satellite imagery (primarily Landsat and Sentinel-2, complemented where available by very-high-resolution imagery) using the web-based Collect Earth Online (CEO) platform.