Global Forest Watch Event Types

These are the two event types the Global Forest Watch integration needs. Set up the integration itself first; this article covers only the event types it writes to.

Supported event types

EarthRanger event type Display title What raises it
gfwgladalert GFW Integrated Deforestation Alerts Global Forest Watch detects likely deforestation inside your area of interest.
gfwfirealert GFW Fire Alerts Global Forest Watch detects a fire inside your area of interest.

Deforestation alert fields

Field Label Type What it holds
confidence Confidence Number How sure Global Forest Watch is about the alert. It arrives as 0, 0.5 or 1, meaning nominal, high or highest.

Fire alert fields

Field Label Type What it holds
confidence Confidence Text How sure Global Forest Watch is about the fire alert.
alert_time Alert Time Text When Global Forest Watch raised the alert.

Confidence is a number on deforestation alerts and text on fire alerts. The two feeds report it differently, so the field types differ between the two event types even though the field has the same name.

How to create these event types

1. Install the command-line tool and sign in

You need a terminal with Python 3.11 or newer and pipx installed, and an EarthRanger account on the target site. 

pipx install earthranger-cli                         # install the tool; this gives you the 'er' command

er profile add sitename --server sitename --username you   # save the site as a profile ('sitename' is the site's subdomain, e.g. 'borana' for borana.pamdas.org)
export ER_PROFILE=sitename                                 # tell 'er' to use that profile in this terminal
er auth login                                              # asks for your EarthRanger password and signs you in

Important: the account you log in with must have permissions on the Event Category that will host these event types.

2. Save this spec as gfw.yaml

The spec puts both types in Monitoring. Change the category block at the top to use a different one. 

category:
  value: monitoring
  display: Monitoring
event_types:
- value: gfwgladalert
  display: GFW Integrated Deforestation Alerts
  geometry_type: point
  fields:
  - {key: confidence, label: Confidence, type: number}
- value: gfwfirealert
  display: GFW Fire Alerts
  geometry_type: point
  fields:
  - {key: confidence, label: Confidence, type: string}
  - {key: alert_time, label: Alert Time, type: string}

The spec does not set priorities or icons — pick those in EarthRanger under Activity → Event Types.

3. Preview, then apply

er events apply gfw.yaml --dry-run   # shows what will be created or changed
er events apply gfw.yaml             # actually does it

Applying is safe to repeat: it creates what is missing and patches only what differs. Nothing is ever deleted.

4. Verify

er events show event-type gfwgladalert
er events show event-type gfwfirealert

CLI tool and full spec documentation: https://github.com/PADAS/earthranger-cli