Monitoring vegetation drought using MODIS remote sensing indices for natural forest and plantation areas

Abstract

Natural forest, oil palm and rubber plantations are economically and environmentally important for Peninsular Malaysia. The present study analysed four years of moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance data to develop spectral indices of vegetation, water availability and moisture stress for the study area. The indices – the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, the Normalised Difference Water Index and the Moisture Stress Index – were applied to the three different habitats to monitor drought and develop a Malaysia Southwest Monsoon (M-SWM) classification. By integrating indicators of the Southwest Monsoon, the Standard Precipitation Index, mean precipitation and temperature and spectral indices correlation analysis, M-SWM classification showed greater sensitivity to drought conditions than any of the individual indicators alone. The results also found that July is the driest month; it was the only period classified as ‘Very Dry’ based on the M-SWM.

Keywords:

• drought indices
• MODIS
• Southeast Asia

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a Universiti Putra Malaysia Research Grant (RU) [9143600] and also by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia [5524108]. Our appreciation is also extended to the Malaysia Meteorological Department and NIES for sharing their climate data. Finally, we thank Erasmus Mundus for the MOVER program, funded by the European Commission and partnerships between the University of Murcia, Spain and the Universiti Putra Malaysia, for providing the study grant.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Universiti Putra Malaysia Research Grant (RU) (9143600) and also by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia (5524108).