Reconstructing Long‐Term Forest Cover in China by Fusing National Forest Inventory and 20 Land Use and Land Cover Data Sets

Abstract As an important type of terrestrial carbon sink, forests play a critical role in offsetting anthropogenic fossil fuel CO 2 emissions which should help nations to achieve carbon neutrality goals worldwide. According to National Forest Inventory (NFI), China has experienced substantial increases in forest cover by benefiting from national afforestation projects initiated in the l980s. However, none of the current land use and land cover (LULC) data sets can reproduce the long‐term changes of forest cover derived from NFI in China. Here, by combining NFI and 20 LULC data sets, we developed a new method of reconstructing historical forest cover in China from 1980 to 2015 at 5‐year intervals. The new forest cover data set can accurately reproduce the historical changes of forest cover in China during this period. Validated against 3851 field survey samples covering the study period of 1985–2015, the data sets show high accuracy with overall accuracy varying from 76.9% to 99.4%. Accurate long‐term forest cover maps have great potential for use in estimating terrestrial carbon, tracking forest management, and other scientific research studies.