The performance of vegetation indexes derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors is explored for drought monitoring in the forests of Northern Tunisia; representing a transition zone between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert. We investigated the suitability of biomass and moisture vegetation indexes for vegetation water content expressed by the equivale...

The modelling of water and energy exchanges between Soil-Vegetation and the ATmosphere (SVAT) often assimilates remotely sensed time series of Vegetation Indices (VIs). At first order, spectral combinations like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) are known for their ability to witness the geographic and seasonal distribution of greenness on continental surfaces. Another usual com...

Since livestock production in Uzbekistan in arid and semi-arid zones is based on rangeland vegetation, contemporary studies have focused on improvement of low productive grazing lands and rehabilitation of degraded rangelands. Less interest has been given to the driving factors of land degradation and their interaction with other ecosystem components, e.g. response of vegetation to grazing indu...

To prevent potentially unsuitable activities during vegetation restoration, it is important to examine the impact of historical restoration activities on the target ecological system to inform future restoration policies. Taking the Loess Plateau of China as an example, a regionalization method and corresponding scheme were proposed to select suitable vegetation types (forested lands, woody gra...

To map spatial patterns of floodplain vegetation structure for hydrodynamic modelling, airborne laser scanning is a promising tool. In a test for the lower Rhine floodplain, vegetation height and density of herbaceous vegetation were measured in the field at 42 georeferenced plots of 200 m each. Simultaneously, three airborne laser scanning (ALS) surveys were carried out in the same areas resul...

Climate change significantly impacts the vegetation growth and terrestrial ecosystems. Using satellite remote sensing observations, here we focus on investigating vegetation dynamics and the likelihood of vegetation-related drought under varying climate conditions across China. We first compare temporal trends of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climatic variables over China. W...

The catastrophic 8.0 Richter magnitude earthquake that occurred on 12 May 2008 in Wenchuan, China caused extensive damage to vegetation due to widespread landslides and debris flows. In the past five years, the Chinese government has implemented a series of measures to restore the vegetation in the severely afflicted area. How is the vegetation recovering? It is necessary and important to evalu...