A Vertical Vegetation Structure Model of Europe

Vertical vegetation structure data has the potential to reveal nuanced ecosystem response to climate change and disturbances such as from wildfires, droughts, deforestation, and forest degradation. However, existing global-scale studies mainly focus on canopy top height or simplified single descriptors of vertical structure at low spatial resolution. Here, we address this gap by integrating full-waveform lidar observations from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) and Sentinel-2 optical images into a wall-to-wall vertical structure model (VSM). The model provides a dense map of estimated relative height profiles at 10 meter resolution for Europe. Uniquely, the VSM resolves the full vertical profile, which allows for direct comparison with existing global canopy top height maps that use different relative height (RH) metrics for canopy height definition. Our model achieves accuracy comparable to state-of-the-art global products. Beyond top height, the VSM offers distinct advantages in characterizing the understory; specifically, the lower RH layers (e.g., RH25) are better in capturing small structures, such as canopy gaps, compared to higher RH layers (e.g., RH98). We see great potential in the presented VSM for advancing science and environmental resource management.

References

Lang, Jetz, Schindler, Wegner. A high-resolution canopy height model of the Earth. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2023

Zhang, Lang, Oehmcke, Mazurczyk, Brandt, Fensholt, Kariryaa, Igel . A Vertical Vegetation Structure Model of Europe. Advances in Representation Learning for Earth Observation (REO) at EURIPS, 2025