The Petawawa Research Forest: Establishment of a remote sensing supersite

The pace of technological change in forest inventory and monitoring over the past 50 years has been remarkable, largely as a result of the increased availability of various forms of remotely sensed data. Benchmarking sites, with the requisite reference and baseline data for evaluating the capacities of new technologies, algorithms, and approaches, can be extremely valuable for sparking innovation, as well as for enabling transparent and scientifically sound assessments of technologies, new data streams, and associated information outcomes. Herein we describe the establishment of a remote sensing supersite at the Petawawa Research Forest (PRF) in southern Ontario, Canada, and summarize the open access datasets that have been compiled and made available to the public. The PRF is approximately 10 000 ha in size and represents a complex assemblage of tree species and forest structures. More than 1900 data records, including multiple airborne laser scanning datasets and associated derivatives (i.e., digital terrain model, canopy height model), airborne imagery, satellite remote sensing time series, and ground plot data, among others, have been made openly available for download from Canada's National Forest Information System. We identify issues and present opportunities associated with the establishment of a remote sensing supersite at the PRF, as well as share some of the lessons learned to foster the establishment and open data sharing for other national and international remote sensing supersites. The PRF supersite can be accessed from the following link: https://opendata.nfis.org/mapserver/PRF.html.