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NDVI Anomaly, Kenya, January 2009. Vegetation Indices. Enhancing green vegetation using mathematical equations and transformations. Learning Objectives. What are vegetation indices? What do we hope to accomplish with them?
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Vegetation Indices Enhancing green vegetation using mathematical equations and transformations
Learning Objectives • What are vegetation indices? • What do we hope to accomplish with them? • Understand the relationship between spectral indices and spectral reflectance curves. • What features of vegetation spectra are most indices based on? • What are advantages and disadvantages of various algabraic indices?
What is a “vegetation index”? • A mathematical combination or transformation of spectral bands that accentuates the spectral properties of green plants so that they appear distinct from other image features.
What Should Vegetation Indices Do?? • Indicate the AMOUNT of vegetation (e.g., %cover, LAI, biomass, etc.) • Distinguish between soil and vegetation • Be insensitive to atmospheric and topographic effects if possible
How is Vegetation Spectrally Distinct? • Reflectance in individual wavelength regions (bands)? • Shape of spectral curve created by looking at more than one wavelength region? • Changes in spectral curves with amount of vegetation? • Others?
Soil Reflectance • Can be bright in NIR (like vegetation) • dry soil especially bright • wet soil much darker than dry soil • Soil can have low visible light reflectance (like vegetation)
Group Exercise • Given typical green vegetation spectral reflectance, and reflectance of soils ranging from dark to bright, propose an algebraic combination of two Landsat 8 bands that will distinguish the plants from the soils!
How can we use this with digital imagery? • Many vegetation indices are based on accentuating the DIFFERENCE between red and NIR reflectance in image pixels Big Difference Small Difference
Difference Vegetation Index (DVI) • Probably the simplest vegetation index • Sensitive to the amount of vegetation • Distinguishes between soil and vegetation • Does NOT deal well with the difference between reflectance and radiance caused by the atmosphere or shadows • So for example…can’t distinguish vegetation from soil in shady areas very well. • A problem when there is topography.
Ratio-based Vegetation Indices • Simplest ratio-based index is called the Simple Ratio (SR) or Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI) • High for vegetation • Low for soil, ice, water, etc. • Indicates the amount of vegetation • Reduces the effects of atmosphere and topography
Why Simple Ratios Reduce Atmospheric and Topographic Effects LNIR = ENIRtNIRrNIR/π LRed = ERedtRedrRed/π So = Partly cancels irradiance from equation and therefore topographic differences Partly cancels transmittance and therefore atmospheric effects
Problem with SR • Division by zero • Wide range of possible values depending on amount of red reflectance • These problems addressed by development of the NDVI
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index • NDVI = (NIR – Red)/(NIR + Red) • Ranges from -1 to 1 • Never (Rarely?) divide by zero • Indicates amount of vegetation, distinguishes veg from soil, minimizes topographic effects, etc. • A good index! • Does not eliminate atmospheric effects!
But…Problem with NDVI (and some other ratios) • Sensitive to soil background reflectance • Non-linear changes in index as amount of vegetation changes • Not insensitive to atmosphere • Affected by geometry • Saturation problems • So…use with caution. Great for many applications but not all!
B G R IR IR IR IR IR IR (Amount changes depending on soil) IR IR
Indices get “tuned” to try to reduce these problems. • E.g., Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) • Uses a soil background “fudge factor” SAVI = [(NIR – Red)/(NIR + Red + L)] * (1 + L) L is a soil fudge factor that varies from 0 to 1 depending on the soil. Often set to 1.
Choosing an Algabraic Index • Most difference indices fall short in terms of dealing with atmospheric and topographic effects • Most ratio-based indices are functionally equivalent (work about the same) • Some ratio-based indices are computationally “cleaner” • NDVI is often the index of choice and generally performs pretty well, but you must be aware of potential issues
Next Lecture… • Indices based on data transformations and “feature space”