Persistent changes in NDVI between 1982 and 2003 over India using AVHRR GIMMS (Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies) data

Abstract

The preliminary results of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) change studies over India using data from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (AVHRR GIMMS) between 1982 and 2003 are presented. The three methodologies of univariate differencing, temporal profiling and anomaly analysis were undertaken. Univariate differencing was used to determine overall NDVI change between 1982 and 2003. A persistence filter was used to filter out ephemeral changes. The temporal profile analyses were carried out over different meteorological subdivisions to compare changes in NDVI with rainfall patterns. In the anomaly analysis, the areas of change were analysed over different land cover categories derived from IRS‐WiFS data. The preliminary results indicate that positive trends in vegetation change occurred over most parts of the country and these changes appear not to be highly correlated with rainfall data, indicating that land cover transformations may be the major driving force behind the changes. The land cover classifications experiencing the greatest increasing NDVI were tropical thorn forests and intensive agriculture and the land cover experiencing very slow growth included current jhum, tropical moist deciduous and temperate evergreen forest. Five‐year moving averages indicate a general increase in NDVI from 1986 to 1998 and then declining thereafter. This is a concern in most of the meteorological subdivisions.

Acknowledgements

We thank the University of Maryland and their Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF), a funded member of NASA's Earth Science Information Partnership, for the use of the GIMMS data and their 8 km land cover map; the European Commission, Joint Research Centre, for the use of their Global Land Cover 2000 Database; and The National Remote Sensing Agency, India, for the use of their land cover map.