Interannual vineyard crop variability in the Castilla–La Mancha region during the period 1991–1996 with Landsat Thematic Mapper images

Abstract

The vineyard crop is considered an indicator of vegetation cover processes in the Castilla–La Mancha region, as the crop has undergone far-reaching changes in the last ten years: abandonment, removal of vineyards and replacement with other crops such as cereal. The so-called ‘Change detection’ is a process that allows identification of differences in the state of the vineyard by observing it at different times. Essentially, it involves the ability to quantify temporal effects using multi-temporal datasets.

The aim of this study is to analyse the vineyard variability during the period 1991–1996 using different Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images belonging to an identified period that highlights differences in the vegetation phenology changes. The images were firstly georeferenced and radiometrically normalized for the change detection purpose. The study area is located in central Spain and involves five councils belonging to the Castilla–La Mancha region: Mota del Cuervo, Las Mesas, Tomelloso, Socuellamos and Villarrobledo, with a surface area of 174 040 ha. This area is especially cultivated by the vineyard crop. Moreover, the study area was classified with the images acquired in 1991, using the multi-temporal masking techniques for the vineyard inventory.

The changes experimented by the vineyard have been grouped in three categories: cereal (CE), abandoned vineyard (AB) and bare soil (BS). Therefore, two methods of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) image difference and NDVI Change Vector Analysis (CVA) were used to map these categories of change. The results indicate that 28.4% of vineyard area undergoes changes during the period 1991–1996. The results have been checked with the ground data and all information is highly conformed.

Acknowledgments

We thank the University of Castilla–La Mancha for their active collaboration. Thanks also go to the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation, Institute of Cooperation with the Arab World (AECI-ICMAPD) for their contribution with a grant. This work was supported by the EFEDA, RESMEDES and the RESYSMED projects of the European Union and also by the CYCYT project ‘Evaluación por Teledetección de la incidencia de los cambios de la cubierta vegetal del suelo en los flujos de agua y energia’.