Relationships between precipitation and satellite-derived vegetation condition within South Australia

Quantifying the nature of relationships between precipitation and vegetation condition at a variety of temporal and spatial scales is fundamental for understanding and managing the environment. The data sets examined in this study, indicated that there are strong relationships between precipitation and NDVI, both spatially and temporally. For each of the vegetation formations within South Australia, NDVI measured green-up was found to tag behind a cumulative amount of precipitation reflecting the delay in vegetation development after rainfall events. From this cursory comparison of rainfall, climate indicators and vegetation index over the study period, it is clear that information derived from the NDVI provides a tool to examine the relationships between vegetation distribution and status during the growing season. The relationships established in this project indicated that the distribution and phenology of different vegetation formations are functions of environmental regions and associations based on climate, terrain characteristics, soil types and human activity