Yunnan Province Vegetation Dynamics Using GIMMS NDVI from 1982~2003

In order to research the vegetation cover variation in Yunnan province, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is utilized to demonstrate the spatio-temporal distribution of vegetation cover. After applying the international universal Maximum Value Composites (MVC) technique for further increasing accuracy, every grid value of GIMMS NDVI is calculated and then compared in spatio-temporal scale. The results show: (1) the vegetation cover in Yunnan province is high generally, and the annual mean vegetation cover can be divided three period; (2) All the inter-season variation of vegetation showed obvious fluctuation, and the change characteristics in summer is closed with inter-annual variation; (3)The vegetation cover in southeast of Yunnan is relatively high, and northwest appeared low value; (4) The spatial characteristics of vegetation cover in summer is similar with annual mean distribution most. So the GIMMS NDVI provides a good tool to study the distribution of vegetation cover generally.