Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evaluation Of Three Modis-Derived Vegetation Index Time Series For Dryland Vegetation Dynamics Monitoring, Linlin Lu, Claudia Kuenzer, Cuizhen Wang, Huadong Guo, Qingting Li

Faculty Publications

Understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of vegetation is essential in drylands. In this paper, we evaluated three vegetation indices, namely the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Surface-Reflectance Product in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China (XUAR), to assess index time series’ suitability for monitoring vegetation dynamics in a dryland environment. The mean annual VI and its variability were generated and analyzed from the three VI time series for the period 2001–2012 across XUAR. Two phenological metrics, start of the season …