Fields Within the Gedi Cal/Val Data

Author: Samuel Ayers (UAH)

Updated: June 30, 2020

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Forest Structure and Biomass Database (FSBD) is a collection of field and LiDAR datasets developed to serve a central repository for calibration and validation of the GEDI mission data. The GEDI Cal/Val Field Data collection contains the field data contributions to the FSBD. The database has contributions across the globe for a variety of vegetation types from projects dating back to 2003.

The table below describes the variables found in the files:

variable	units	description
plot	NA	name of plot
subplot	NA	subplot identifier
survey	NA	name of survey event
private	NA	data privacy (1=private, 0=public)
date	NA	date of survey event
region	NA	region of plot location: Eu=Europe; As=Asia; Au=Australia/New Zealand; Af=Africa; SEAsia=South East Asia; SA=South/Central America; US=United States)
vegetation	NA	vegetation type where sampled: Sav = Savannah; TropRF = Tropical rainforest; TempRF = Temperate rainforest; TropSF = Tropical seasonal forest; TempF = Temperate forest; BorF = Boreal forest; Wo = Woodland; Gr = Grassland; Sh = Shrubland; De = Desert
map	mm	mean annual rainfall
mat	deg	mean annual temperature
pft.modis	NA	plant functional type from the nearest MCD12Q1 product date
pft.name	NA	plant functional type from field descriptions or other ancillary data
wwf.ecoregion	NA	Terrestrial ecoregion from the WWF Olson et al. (2004) terrestrial ecoregions of the globe
latitude	deg	latitude of location where sampled (-90 to 90 deg South to North)
longitude	deg	longitude of location where sampled (-180 to 180 deg West to East)
p.sample	NA	subplot type: 0=independent fixed area plots; 1=variable area plots; 2=multiple fixed area plots for aggregation; 3=variable radius sampling
p.stemmap	NA	stem mapped plot (1=TRUE,0=FALSE)
p.origin	NA	origin of the plot, SW has to be interpreted as the lower left corner relative to the orientation
p.orientation	deg	orientation of plot degrees clockwise from UTM map grid north
p.shape	NA	plot shape (E=ellipse, R=rectangle)
p.majoraxis	m	major axis of plot
p.minoraxis	m	minor axis of plot
p.geom	m	plot geometry WKT string
p.epsg	NA	epsg code of the UTM zone used for the tree coordinates
p.area	m2	plot polygon area
p.mindiam	m	minimum tree diameter measured across all subplots
sp.geom	m	subplot geometry WKT string
sp.ix	NA	subplot track index
sp.iy	NA	subplot pulse index
sp.shape	NA	subplot shape (E=ellipse, R=rectangle)
sp.area	m2	subplot area
sp.mindiam	m	minimum tree diameter measured for the subplot
pai	m2/m2	plant area index of vegetation
lai	m2/m2	leaf area index of vegetation
cover	NA	vertically projected canopy cover (1-Pgap)
dft	NA	dominant plant functional type: EA = evergreen angiosperm; DA = deciduous angiosperm; EG = evergreen gymnosperm; DG = deciduous gymnosperm
agb	kg	mass of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
agb.valid	NA	valid above ground mass prediction (1=TRUE,0=FALSE)
agb.lower	kg	lower limit of standard error of mass of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
agb.upper	kg	upper limit of standard error of mass of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
agbd.ha	Mg/ha	mass density of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
agbd.ha.lower	Mg/ha	lower limit of standard error of mass density of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
agbd.ha.upper	Mg/ha	upper limit of standard error of mass density of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
sn	n	plot stem number
snd.ha	n/ha	plot stem number density
sba	m2	plot stand basal area
sba.ha	m2/ha	plot stand basal area per hectare
swsg.ba	g/cm3/m2	basal-area-weighted wood specific gravity
h.t.max	m	maximum total height of plants from ground to highest leaf
sp.agb	kg	subplot mass of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
sp.agb.valid	NA	valid subplot above ground mass prediction (1=TRUE,0=FALSE)
sp.agbd.ha	Mg/ha	subplot mass density of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
sp.agbd.ha.lower	Mg/ha	subplot lower limit of standard error of mass density of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
sp.agbd.ha.upper	Mg/ha	subplot upper limit of standard error of mass density of above-ground standing trees and shrubs
sp.sba.ha	m2/ha	subplot stand basal area per hectare
sp.swsg.ba	g/cm3/m2	subplot basal-area-weighted wood specific gravity
sp.h.t.max	m	subplot maximum total height of plants from ground to highest leaf
l.project	NA	name of the lidar project dataset on UMD servers
l.instr	NA	lidar instrument manufacturer and model
l.epsg	NA	epsg code of the corresponding lidar data
l.date	NA	date of the corresponding lidar acquisition
g.fp	NA	geometry collection WKT string of GEDI lidar footprint center locations
tree.date	NA	date of tree measurement
family	NA	latin name of botanical family
species	NA	latin name of species (genus species)
pft	NA	plant functional type: EA = evergreen angiosperm; DA = deciduous angiosperm; EG = evergreen gymnosperm; DG = deciduous gymnosperm
wsg	g/cm3	the ratio of wood density to water
wsg.sd	g/cm3	standard deviation of WSG sample values
tree	NA	tree identifier
stem	NA	stem identifier
x	m	easting UTM coordinate
y	m	northing UTM coordinate
z	m	elevation relative to geoid coordinate
status	NA	live tree (1=TRUE,0=FALSE)
allom.key	NA	key to allometric LUT
a.stem	m2	area of total stem cross-section at measurement height
h.t	m	total height of plant from ground to highest leaf
h.t.mod	NA	tree heights modelled using local or regional DBH-Ht relationship
d.stem	m	diameter of stem at measurement height
d.stem.valid	NA	valid tree diameter to use in AGB calculation (1=TRUE,0=FALSE)
d.ht	m	height at which stem diameter was measured
c.w	m	diameter or width of crown
m.agb	kg	mass of above-ground components of tree