Seasonal variations of water status and SPOT NDVI in Mediterranean woody plants

Author

Pasqualini, Vanina ; Ballini, Christine ; Robles, Christine ; Korboulewsky, Nathalie ; Ferrat, Lila ; Bonin, Gilles

Author_Institution

UMR/CNRS 6134, Univ. of Corsica, Corte

fYear

2006

fDate

9-12 July 2006

Firstpage

51

Lastpage

56

Abstract

Facing the problem of fire risks, it is useful to test accurate tools to prevent this flail. Remote sensing and vegetation indices are suitable to estimate fire risks. The aim of the study was to follow the evolution of water status of various Mediterranean vegetal communities and of Normalised Difference of Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculated from SPOT images. The water status was studied using the water content and the water potential. Annual variations of the water status and NDVI show both the influence of the season and the type of vegetation community. At the end of the summer, the hierarchy of vegetal communities found for NDVI and water status are similar. At this period, sites composed with arborescent species have higher water content, water potential, and NDVI than sites composed with arbustive species. For the other seasons or for a precise site, there is no correlation between NDVI and water status.

Keywords

atmospheric boundary layer; fires; moisture; risk analysis; soil; transpiration; vegetation; vegetation mapping; Mediterranean vegetal communities; NDVI; Normalised Difference of Vegetation Index; SPOT images; Southeastern France; arborescent species; arbustive species; fire risks; remote sensing; seasonal variation; soil; transpiration; water content; water potential; water status evolution; Biomass; Electromagnetic measurements; Electromagnetic radiation; Fires; Humans; Infrared spectra; Plants (biology); Remote sensing; Vegetation mapping; Water;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Environment Identities and Mediterranean Area, 2006. ISEIMA '06. First international Symposium on

Conference_Location

Corte-Ajaccio

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0231-X

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0232-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISEIMA.2006.345044

Filename

4150433