Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Map

Introduction
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a simple graphical indicator that
can be used to analyze remote sensing measurements, typically, but not necessarily, from a space
platform, and assess whether the target being observed contains live green vegetation or not.
Live green plants absorb solar radiation in the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)
spectral region, which they use as a source of energy in the process of photosynthesis. Leaf cells
have also evolved to re-emit solar radiation in the near-infrared spectral region (which carries
approximately half of the total incoming solar energy), because the photon energy at
wavelengths longer than about 700 nanometers is too small to synthesize organic molecules. A
strong absorption at these wavelengths would only result in overheating the plant and possibly
damaging the tissues.
Hence, live green plants appear relatively dark in the PAR and relatively bright in the
near-infrared. By contrast, clouds and snow tend to be rather bright in the red (as well as other
visible wavelengths) and quite dark in the near-infrared. The pigment in plant leaves,
chlorophyll, strongly absorbs visible light (from 0.4 to 0.7 µm) for use in photosynthesis. The
cell structure of the leaves, on the other hand, strongly reflects near-infrared light (from 0.7 to
1.1 µm). The more leaves a plant has, the more these wavelengths of light are affected,
respectively. Since early instruments of Earth Observation, such as NASA's ERTS and NOAA's
AVHRR, acquired data in visible and near-infrared, it was natural to exploit the strong
differences in plant reflectance to determine their spatial distribution in these satellite images.
In general, if there is much more reflected radiation in near-infrared wavelengths than in
visible wavelengths, then the vegetation in that pixel is likely to be dense and may contain some
type of forest. Subsequent work has shown that the NDVI is directly related to the photosynthetic
capacity and hence energy absorption of plant canopies. Although the index admits to go from -1
to 1, even in more densely populated urban areas the value of normal NDVI is positive, although
closer to zero. Negative values are more likely to be disturbed in the atmosphere and some
specific materials.
Objectives
The main objective of the project activity is to provide a Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index Map.
Specifically, it aims to;
1. Connect through georeferencer for the base map image (raster image).
2. Calculate the values using raster calculation
3. Execute zonal calculation
4. Lay out the NDVI Map.

Methodology
The instructor gave files that could help us for the projects such as data and images
needed to input in QGIS. Then input the base map from the given file through also with the help
of georeferencer. Create vector layer and also polygon such as square needed for the plot and sub
plots of the corn field. By using Raster Calculator, the NDVI was able to calculate with the
following equation:

(eq.1)
After executing raster calculation, the properties of the NDVI layer was edited then
proceed to zonal calculation to performs the statistics with the values of the value raster to be
able to get the statistics values for each zone based on the zone raster. Open the attribute table of
the vector layer, screen shot the values then lay out the attribute table together with the a
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Map and plot lay out.
Results and Discussion
The following image show a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Map. The map
shows a corn field.

Fig. 1 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Map

According to gisgeography.com (2017), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

(NDVI) quantifies vegetation by measuring the difference between near-infrared (which
vegetation strongly reflects) and red light (which vegetation absorbs). NDVI always ranges from
-1 to +1. But there isn’t a distinct boundary for each type of land cover.
Hence, the negative values, would highly like that it’s water. On the other hand, if you
have a NDVI value close to +1, there’s a high possibility that it represents a dense green leaves.
But when NDVI is close to zero, there isn’t green leaves and it could even be an urbanized area.
As per the map image shows, the corn field shows a color shade of green and light green.
Also, as per the calculated 79 plot lay outs of the corn field, it produced a positive NDVI values
that is closest/nearest to +1.

Conclusion
 Upon using QGIS for obtaining a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Map, the corn
field was able to analyze and has shown a rich vegetation based on the following evidences: the
calculated NDVI values of the plots in corn field were positive and close to +1 value and the
shade color of the field represents abundance of vegetation land cover.
References
GATES, DAVID M. (1980) Biophysical Ecology, Springer-Verlag, New York, p. 611
MYNENI, R. B., F. G. HALL, P.J. SELLERS, AND A.L. MARSHAK (1995). The
interpretation of spectral vegetation indexes', IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing, 33, 481-486.
DEERING D.W., J.W. ROUSE, JR., R.H. HAAS, AND J.A. SCHELL. (1975).
Measuring "forage production" of grazing units from Landsat MSS data, pp. 1169–1178. In Proc.
Tenth Int. Symp. On Remote Sensing of Environment. Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Online references:
Retrieved from:
https://gisgeography.com/ndvi-normalized-difference-vegetation-index/
https://www.sentinel-hub.com/eoproducts/ndvi-normalized-difference-vegetation-
index