Free Vegetation and Ecosystem GIS Data Sources

Vegetation and ecosystem data is essential for biodiversity conservation, climate change monitoring, and land management. Here are the best free global datasets.

MODIS Vegetation Indices (NDVI/EVI)

The MODIS NDVI/EVI dataset provides the most widely used satellite vegetation time series, offering global vegetation index data at 250m–1km resolution from 2000 to present.

• Coverage: Global
• Resolution: 250m / 500m / 1km
• Temporal: 16-day composites since 2000
• Best for: Vegetation health monitoring and drought detection

VIIRS Nighttime Lights

VIIRS Nighttime Lights provides global artificial light measurements at 500m resolution from 2012 to present. While not strictly vegetation data, it’s widely used alongside vegetation indices for urbanization and human activity analysis.

• Coverage: Global
• Resolution: 500m
• Best for: Urbanization mapping, economic activity analysis

GEDI Forest Canopy Height

The NASA GEDI lidar instrument provided global forest canopy height and vertical structure measurements at 30m resolution from the International Space Station (2019–2023).

• Coverage: 51.6°N–51.6°S (temperate and tropical forests)
• Resolution: 30m
• Best for: Forest carbon assessment and biodiversity habitat modeling

WWF Terrestrial Ecoregions

The WWF Terrestrial Ecoregions dataset divides the world into 867 distinct biogeographic units, grouped into 14 biomes and 8 realms for conservation planning.

• Coverage: Global
• Format: Shapefile / GeoJSON
• Best for: Conservation planning and biogeographic research

IUCN Ecosystem Typology

The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology provides a hierarchical classification and spatial dataset of ecosystem functional groups worldwide for ecosystem risk assessment.

• Best for: Red List of Ecosystems assessments

Vegetation Data Workflows

1. Use MODIS NDVI for long-term vegetation trend analysis across multiple decades.
2. Combine GEDI canopy height with land cover data for forest structure analysis.
3. Use WWF Ecoregions as a base layer for biodiversity conservation planning.
4. Process all data locally in GeoDataViewer Studio.