Maps of forest vertical structure for Colombia, a megadiverse country

Vegetation vertical structure refers to the 3D distribution of vegetation aboveground biomass. Vegetation vertical structure of tropical forests influences other ecological and environmental variables that are essential for the functioning of the ecosystems. Integrating over 5.9 million Globel Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) footprints, multispectral, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, we built five national maps at 25 m resolution of five forest structural metrics for Colombia, South America, for the year 2020. We mapped canopy height, the height of half the cumulative returned energy from GEDI (RH50), total canopy cover, foliage height diversity, and total plant area index. The resulting maps tended to have the highest errors in the Amazon and Andean regions. Total cover had the highest relative error. Interrelationship curves between forest structural metrics of GEDI footprints are maintained across mapped metrics, indicating that the predictive models preserve structural relationships observed in GEDI data. Due to the medium-high spatial resolution and national coverage of the forest structural maps presented in this work, these maps will be useful for evaluating and mapping other ecological variables and conservation priorities in Colombia.