Downloading Data from the Global Canopy Height Map

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Meta and the World Resources Institute have released a global canopy height map with a resolution of 1 meter, marking a significant advancement for forest monitoring and terrestrial biodiversity management. Although it’s impressive to view these data online, many professionals and enthusiasts may wish to work directly with this data on their local systems. Below, we explain how to download these valuable data using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI).

Step 1: Installing AWS CLI

For Windows users, although the process is similar on other operating systems:

  • Visit the AWS CLI website to download the appropriate installer for your operating system at AWS CLI.
  • For Windows, use this direct link to download: AWS CLI for Windows.
  • Follow the instructions to install the software on your computer.

Step 2: Accessing AWS CLI Resources

  • Open the Terminal: This can be done by navigating to the folder where you will store the data, right-clicking, and selecting ‘Open in Terminal’. Alternatively, you can access it via the Start menu by searching for ‘cmd’ or ‘command prompt’.
  • Navigate to the desired directory using the cd command, for example, cd E:\AWS.
  • Access the resources using the following AWS CLI command (no AWS account required):
aws s3 ls --no-sign-request s3://dataforgood-fb-data/forests/v1/

Step 3: Listing the Available Data

To explore the data available in a specific directory, such as alsgedi_global_v6_float:

aws s3 ls s3://dataforgood-fb-data/forests/v1/alsgedi_global_v6_float/ --no-sign-request | Select-Object -First 10

To access a specific subdirectory such as chm, simply add the path to the previous command:

aws s3 ls s3://dataforgood-fb-data/forests/v1/alsgedi_global_v6_float/chm/ --no-sign-request | Select-Object -First 10

Step 4: Downloading the Data

To download a complete dataset, such as alsgedi_global_v6_float, use the following command, which will start copying the data to your local directory:

aws s3 cp s3://dataforgood-fb-data/forests/v1/alsgedi_global_v6_float/ . --recursive --no-sign-request

It is also crucial to download the tile index file, which allows identification of the exact location corresponding to each downloaded image. This facilitates efficient organization and use of the data in subsequent applications and analyses:

aws s3 cp --no-sign-request s3://dataforgood-fb-data/forests/v1/alsgedi_global_v6_float/tiles.geojson tiles.geojson

Once downloaded, the files are ready to be opened and utilized in any GIS application, such as QGIS or ArcGIS, allowing for advanced manipulation and analysis.

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