This document describes the official Global Forest Watch API which is currently in beta. Interested in being a trusted tester? Contact the Data Lab (datalab@wri.org) at World Resources Institute.

The API currently focuses on:

1. Analysis
2. Pubsub
3. Stories
4. Countries

Authentication currently requires API tokens.

The Analysis API provides basic analysis about deforestation within a GeoJSON Polygon or MultiPolygon for multiple datasets available through GFW including FORMA, UMD, IMAZON, MODIS, fires, and concessions. Analysis results can be downloaded in multiple formats including GeoJSON, Shapefile, KML, SVG, and CSV.

The Pubsub API supports subscribing to GFW to receive automatic updates about specific datasets within a GeoJSON Polygon or MultiPolygon. For example, you can subscribe to FORMA to received updates when alerts are detected in your area of interest.

The Stories API supports reading, creating, editing, and deleting user curated stories. Authentication is required using a GFW issued API token. Stories can also be listed for specific areas.

The Countries API provides information about forests for individual countries by ISO code.

The API rides on Google App Engine Python 2.7 runtime, so we just need to download the latest Python SDK and add it to our PATH. Then checkout the repo:

$ git clone git@github.com:wri/gfw-api.git

And we can run the API using the local development server that ships with App Engine:

$ cd gfw-api
$ dev_appserver.py .

Boom! The webapp is now running locally at http://localhost:8080 and you get an admin console at http://localhost:8080/_ah/admin. Some API methods require a CartoDB API key, so make sure you have a gfw/cdb.txt file with the key.

To deploy to App Engine:

$ cd tools
$ ./deploy.sh {email} {password} {version}