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...

Landsat 8, the most recently launched satellite of the series, promises to maintain the continuity of Landsat 7. However, in addition to subtle differences in sensor characteristics and vegetation index (VI) generation algorithms, VIs respond differently to the seasonality of the various types of vegetation cover. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effects of these variations on VIs...

In red-NIR reflectance space, the Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI) isolines, representing similar vegetation biophysical quantities, are neither convergent to a point nor parallel to each other. Consequently, the treatment of the MSAVI isolines is distinctly different from those of other vegetation index isolines, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the per...

[1] The enhancement of infiltration capacity in the presence of vegetation is well documented in arid ecosystems where it can significantly impact the water balance and vegetation spatial organization. To begin progress toward developing a theory of vegetation‐infiltration interactions across a wide spectrum of climate regimes, three key questions are addressed: (1) Does vegetation also enhance...

Beijing’s mountainous areas have an important ecological significance because they are ecological conservation and water source protection areas of Beijing. The impact of precipitation on the vegetation coverage of Beijing’s mountainous areas is qualitatively analyzed using multi-temporal Landsat images obtained during the last 20 years. Firstly, the influence of external factors, such as pheno...

The paucity of modern pollen-rain data from the Iberian Peninsula is a signifi cant barrier to understanding the Late Quaternary vegetation history of this globally important southwestern mediterranean region. The relationships between current vegetation, the available environmental data and modern pollen are examined in Central Spain for both natural and human-induced vegetation types, as an a...

Remote sensing is used for monitoring the impacts of meteorological drought on ecosystems, but few large-scale comparisons of the response timescale to drought of different vegetation remote sensing products are available. We correlated vegetation health products derived from polar-orbiting radiometer observations with a meteorological drought indicator available at different aggregation timesc...

In 2003 we addressed the issue of intercalibration of vegetation indices from different satellite-based optical sensor systems with differing spectral response functions in the visible and near-infrared bands (Steven et al., 2003). We used a database of spectroradiometric measurements made over a range of canopy densities, soils and foliage colours to simulate vegetation indices (NDVI, SAVI and...

There is increasing demand for reliable, high-resolution vegetation maps covering large areas. Airborne laser scanning data is available for large areas with high resolution and supports automatic processing, therefore, it is well suited for habitat mapping. Lowland hay meadows are widespread habitat types in European grasslands, and also have one of the highest species richness. The objective ...

Vegetation affects water balance of the land surface by e.g. storage of precipitation water in the canopy and soil water extraction by transpiration. Therefore, it is essential to consider the role of vegetation in affecting water balance by taking into account the temporal dynamics of e.g. leaf area index, rooting depth and stomatal conductance in hydrological models. However until now, most c...