Remote sensing indices for monitoring land degradation in a semiarid to arid basin in Jordan

Jawad Al-Bakri; Hani Saoub; William Nickling; Ayman Suleiman; Mohammad Salahat; Saeb Khresat; Tareq Kandakji

doi:10.1117/12.974333

25 October 2012 Remote sensing indices for monitoring land degradation in a semiarid to arid basin in Jordan

Jawad Al-Bakri, Hani Saoub, William Nickling, Ayman Suleiman, Mohammad Salahat, Saeb Khresat, Tareq Kandakji

Proceedings Volume 8538, Earth Resources and Environmental Remote Sensing/GIS Applications III; 853810 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.974333
Event: SPIE Remote Sensing, 2012, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

Spectral reflectance for soils and vegetation of the Yarmouk basin were correlated with surficial soil properties and vegetation biomass and cover. The overall aim of the study was to identify bands suitable for assessing soil and vegetation as indices for land degradation and desertification. Results showed that vegetation was well separated from soils in the shortwave infrared wavelength at 1480 nm. For most sites, the differences in the bandwidths (in the range of 8.5 nm to 90 nm) did not improve the differentiation of vegetation types. For all wavelengths, stronger correlation values (maximum R² = 0.85) were obtained for vegetation cover when compared with biomass (maximum R² = 0.54). Soil spectral reflectance tended to increase with salinity, with maximum correlations obtained in the blue wavelengths (470±10 nm, 485±90 nm), followed by green and the NIR bands, where R² values were around 0.60. Comparing results from radiometer measurements with results obtained from ASTER image bands showed that correlations tended to decrease with decreased spatial resolution for the investigated soil properties. For all wavelengths, spectral reflectance of degraded soils was higher than that for natural vegetation and irrigated crops with partial surface cover. Results of the study showed that the use of remote sensing indices related to vegetation cover and soil salinity would be recommended to map the extent of land degradation in the study area and similar environments. However, spectral unmixing should be applied to improve the correlations between satellite remote sensing data and surficial soil properties.

Citation Download Citation

Jawad Al-Bakri, Hani Saoub, William Nickling, Ayman Suleiman, Mohammad Salahat, Saeb Khresat, and Tareq Kandakji "Remote sensing indices for monitoring land degradation in a semiarid to arid basin in Jordan", Proc. SPIE 8538, Earth Resources and Environmental Remote Sensing/GIS Applications III, 853810 (25 October 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.974333

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