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Advanced land observing satellite data to identify ground vegetation in a juniper forest, northeast Iran

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Abstract

Juniperus excelsa subsp. polycarpos, (Persian juniper), is found in northeast Iran. In this study, the relationship between ground cover and vegetation indices have been investigated using remote sensing data for a Persian juniper forest. Multispectral data were analyzed based on the Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 and panchromatic data obtained by the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping sensors, both on board the advanced land observing satellite (ALOS). The ground cover was calculated using field survey data from 25 sub-sample plots and the vegetation indices were derived with 5 × 5 maximum filtering algorithm from ALOS data. R2 values were calculated for the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and various soil-adjusted vegetation indices (SAVI) with soil-brightness-dependent correction factors equal to 1 and 0.5, a modified SAVI (MSAVI) and an optimized SAVI (OSAVI). R2 values for the NDVI, MSAVI, OSAVI, SAVI (1), and SAVI (0.5) were 0.566, 0.545, 0.619, 0.603, and 0.607, respectively. Total ratio vegetation index for arid and semi-arid regions based on spectral wavelengths of ALOS data with an R2 value 0.633 was considered. Results of the current study will be useful for forest inventories in arid and semi-arid regions in addition to assisting decision-making for natural resource managers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geography Group, Amin Police-Science University, Tehran, Iran

    Hadi Fadaei

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  1. Hadi Fadaei
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Correspondence to Hadi Fadaei.

Additional information

Project funding: The work was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S-9) of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and JAXA’s 1st GCOM-C RA.

The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com

Corresponding editor: Tao Xu.

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Fadaei, H. Advanced land observing satellite data to identify ground vegetation in a juniper forest, northeast Iran. J. For. Res. 31, 531–539 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0812-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0812-5

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