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Analysis of vegetation indices for

monitoring vegetation degradation in
semi‐arid and arid areas of Mongolia
T. JAVZANDULAM , R. TATEISHI & T. SANJAA
a
Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS) , Chiba
University , 1‐33 Yayoi‐cho, Inage‐ku, Chiba, 263‐8522, Japan
Published online: 26 Jan 2007.

To cite this article: T. JAVZANDULAM , R. TATEISHI & T. SANJAA (2005) Analysis of vegetation
indices for monitoring vegetation degradation in semi‐arid and arid areas of Mongolia, International
Journal of Environmental Studies, 62:2, 215-225, DOI: 10.1080/00207230500034123

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 International Journal of Environmental Studies,
Vol. 62, No. 2, April 2005, 215–225

Analysis of vegetation indices for monitoring

vegetation degradation in semi-arid and arid areas
of Mongolia
T. JAVZANDULAM*, R. TATEISHI AND T. SANJAA
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Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS), Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-choInage-ku,
Chiba, 263-8522, Japan
Taylor and Francis Ltd
GENV103395.sgm

(Received in final form 8 October 2004)

International
10.1080/00207230500034123
0020-7233
Original
Taylor
2005
March
000000
00
62
Center
JavzandulamTsend-Ayush
2005
&Article
forFrancis
Environmental
(print)/1029-0400
Journal
Ltdof Environmental
Remote
(online)
Sensing
Studies
(CERES)Chiba University1-33 Yayoi-choInage-kuChiba263-8522Japanjavzaa@graduate.chiba-u.jp

An attempt has been made in this study to delineate the characteristics of spectral signatures of the
vegetation in terms of various vegetation indices (VIs), particularly the Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index (NDVI), Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index2 (MSAVI2) and Enhanced
Vegetation Index (EVI) to manifest their ability to estimate vegetation biomass over a large area and
to monitor vegetation degradation in arid and semi-arid area of Mongolia. Multi-temporal SPOT-4
VEGETATION data from 1998 to 2001 have been used for the analysis. The correlations between the
vegetation indices observed at various degrees of vegetation coverage during different stages of
growth were examined. The results showed that in Mongolian desert steppe and Gobi desert zone
MSAVI2 is the best, while in mountain steppe zone EVI is found to estimate biomass well.
Generally, it was found that total biomass was decreased by 50.7% and 31.4% of rangeland is very
severe degraded in the case study area.

Keywords: Vegetation indices; Vegetation dynamic; Mongolia

1. Introduction

Land degradation, which is one of representative deteriorating factors of the environment, can
be observed worldwide. Degradation implies the reduction of resource potential by one or a
combination of processes acting on the land. Desertification has been defined by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as land degradation in arid semi-arid and dry sub-
humid areas resulting mainly from adverse human impact. The quantification of spatial behav-
iour at the specific moment is an initial step to monitor the progress of desertification. The
capability of wide spatial coverage of remote sensing data is its advantageous feature, and
remote sensing data has been evaluated as useful information to monitor land degradation [1].
Degradation of vegetation is considered to be the main form of desertification [2] and, usually
regarded as a reduction in biomass and decline in the vegetative ground cover. Therefore,
accurate biomass estimation is necessary for a better understanding vegetation degradation.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: javzaa@graduate.chiba-u.jp

International Journal of Environmental Studies

ISSN 0020-7233 print: ISSN 1029-0400 online © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/00207230500034123
 216 T. Javzandulam et al.

In this article, for the vegetation degradation monitoring the reduction of biomass is consid-
ered. In order to explore estimation biomass using remote sensing data various vegetation
indices were tested in the different natural zones.

2. Study area

Our experiment for testing the ability of VIs to estimate vegetation biomass at various degrees
of vegetation coverage during different stages of growth was conducted in grassland area of
Mongolia, which is geographically located between 41°35′N to 52°09′N and 87°44′E to
123°00′E. Total area is 1.565000 km2. The territory of Mongolia is divided into several natural
zones such as mountain, mountain steppe, plain steppe, desert steppe and the Gobi desert.
Mountain steppe, plain steppe and desert steppe are most significant and are large for livestock
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and agriculture. The climate of country is characterized by short, dry summer and long cold
winter season. The mean annual precipitation is 200–300 mm. The growing season runs from
end of May to the end of August. The significantly dry climate, low soil fertility and sparse
vegetation cover of country, with over 40% of it’s territory included in the geographic area of
the desert steppe and Gobi desert, make desertification a key issue of environmental concern.
It has been estimated that over 78% of the total territory of Mongolia is under risk of deserti-
fication, of which nearly 60% is classed as highly vulnerable. Over 70% of the total pastures
have been degraded through overgrazing as well as drought and problems of environmental
deterioration are further exacerbated by the ploughing of over 1.3 million hectare of land for
arable agriculture, much of which is now seriously depleted in fertility and abandoned. For
monitoring vegetation degradation 349772 km2 area of desert steppe and Gobi desert area
(41°35′N to 46°48′N and 99°25′E to 111°58′E) is considered as a case study area (figure 1).
Figure 1. The study area: Mongolia.

3. Data

3.1. Multi-temporal SPOT-4 VGT sensor data

In this article, we acquired VGT-S10 data from 1 April 1998 to 30 September 2001 (a time
series of observations). The VGT sensor belongs to a new generation of space-borne optical
sensors that were designed for mainly observations of vegetation and land surfaces [3].

RUSSIA

MONGOLIA

Case study area

CHINA
Figure 1. The study area: Mongolia.
 Vegetation indices 217

3.2. Ground truth data

The biomass measurement is carried out by cutting all the grass inside an area of 1m2 by
hand. In this article 160 biomass measurement data sampled from 15 sites were used.
Biomass measurement data is carried out based on 10-day interval from middle of June 1998
to middle of September 2001. The 15 sites were selected from different natural zones as
follows:

● Two sites are located in mountain steppe, which is widespread in central, north and western
regions of Mongolia and usually has dark brown and brown soil. Common grasses in this
area are F. lenensis, F. sibirica, Polygonum angustifolium, Coluria geodes, Crossularia
acicularis and Pentaphylloides fruticosa.
Eight sites are located in plain steppe, which is abundant between the small mountain and
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●
valleys. The prevailing herbs and plants in this area are Stipa capillata, S. decipiens,
S. grandis and Cleistogenes squarros.
● Five sites are located in desert steppe and Gobi desert, which is located in the southern
section of Mongolia. Soil is grey-brown and desert steppe brown with pebbles. Plants
abundant in this area are Stipa gobica, S. glareosa, Cleistogenes squarrosa, S. klemenzii
and C. songorica, and less abundant plants are Kochio prostrate, Allium polyrrhizum and
A. mongolicum.

4. Methodology

4.1. Vegetation indices

NDVI, MSAVI2 and EVI were calculated for each of the VGT-S10 products. NDVI is a
normalized ratio of the NIR and red bands:

NIR − Re d
NDVI = (1)
NIR + Re d

Huete [4] suggested a new vegetation index which was designed to minimize the effect of
the soil background, which he called the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI). An iterated
version of modification of this vegetation index which is called MSAVI2 [5]:

2 NIR + 1 − (2 NIR + 1)2 − 8( NIR − Re d )

MSAVI 2 = (2)
2
EVI was developed to optimize the vegetation signal with improved sensitivity for high
biomass regions and improved monitoring through de-coupling of the canopy background
signal and reduction in atmospheric influences:

NIR − Re d
EVI = G (3)
NIR + C1 Re d − C2 Blue + L

where L is the canopy background adjustment that addresses non-linear, differential NIR and
Red radian transfer through a canopy, and C1, C2 are the coefficients of the aerosol
resistance term, which uses the blue band to correct the aerosol influences of the red band.
 218 T. Javzandulam et al.

The coefficients adopted in the EVI algorithm are, L = 1, C1 = 6, C2 = 7.5, and G (gain
factor) = 2.5 [6].

4.2. Analysis
Relationships between vegetation indices observed at various degrees of vegetation coverage
during their different stages of growth were analysed and the relationships between VIs and
biomass were investigated using ground measurement data. The accuracy of the estimate
biomass by vegetation index was measured using a standard error of estimate. The standard
error is calculated by following equation:
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1 N
SE = ∑ ( yˆi − yt )2
N − 2 i =1
( 4)

where ŷi and yi are the predicted and ground measured value, of biomass respectively, and N
]cyr[ci

the number of samples.

Sensitivity analysis consists of computing derivatives of one or more quantities (outputs)
with respect to one or several independent variables (inputs). The sensitivity of vegetation
indices to vegetation density was evaluated using finite-differences method. Finite-differences
method for sensitivity analysis is calculated by following equation:

df f ( xi + h) − f ( xi )
≈ + O(h) (5)
dxi h

where h is the finite-difference interval, the truncation error is O(h), and hence this is a first-
order approximation and f(xi + h), f(xi) is the value of function at xi and xi + h points.
In order to designate the severity of degradation the terms slight, moderate, severe and
very severe is used. Slight, moderate, severe and very severe vegetation degradation reflect
less than 25% loss in productivity, 25–50% loss, 50–75% loss, and greater than 75% loss,
respectively [7].

5. Results

Vegetation indices were calculated from SPOT-4 Vegetation data of April to September from
1998 to 2001, and the relationship between vegetation indices for each 10 day series were
investigated. In early stages of growing season EVI is less correlated to the NDVI and
MSAVI2. Apparently, the NDVI and MSAVI2 are highly correlated for all of the temporal
changes and in different natural zones. Correlation coefficients between vegetation indices for
study area are shown in the table 1. The relationships between biomass and each vegetation
index for each natural zone are shown in figures 2–4.
3. The relation between biomass (g/m2) and vegetation indices in the desert

In the mountain steppe zone EVI and biomass are correlated better than the other indices.
Figure 2.
4. mountain
plain steppe
steppe
steppe
zone.
andzone.
Gobi desert zone.

The biomass and EVI are exponentially related; as vegetation index increases, biomass
becomes saturated. MSAVI2 and biomass are correlated well in desert steppe zone Gobi desert.
Table 2 shows the correlation functions and coefficients between biomass and vegetation
 Vegetation indices 219

Table 1. Correlation coefficients between vegetation indices for the study area.

EVI & MSAVI2 EVI & NDVI MSAVI2 &NDVI

April 0.55 0.58 0.98

May 0.88 0.91 0.98
June 0.96 0.91 0.98
July 0.96 0.98 0.99
August 0.94 0.97 0.98
September 0.91 0.96 0.98
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140 140

120 120
Biomass (g/m2 )

Biomass (g/m2 )

100 100

80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20
0 0
100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67

EVI (digital number) MSAVI2 (digital number)

140

120
Biomass (g/m 2 )

100

80

60

40

20

0
140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220

NDVI (digital number)

Figure 2. The relation between biomass (g/m2) and vegetation indices in the mountain steppe zone.
 220 T. Javzandulam et al.

250 250

200 200
Biomass (g/m2 )

Biomass (g/m2)
150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
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5 0 7 5 1 0 0125 150 175 200 225 250 275 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68

EVI (digital number) MSAVI2 (digital number)

250

200
Biomass (g/m2 )

150

100

50

0
100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
NDVI (digital number)

Figure 3. The relation between biomass (g/m2) and vegetation indices in the plain steppe zone.

indices and the standard error of estimate for biomass from different vegetation indices for
each natural zone.
In this article sensitivity of vegetation indices to vegetation density is evaluated in different
zones separately. The sensitivity results are shown in figure 5. In desert steppe and Gobi
desert zone MSAVI2 is more sensitive to the vegetation density. In plain steppe zone sensi-
tivities of the vegetation indices are similar. In mountain steppe EVI is more sensitive to
vegetation density.
The standard error of estimate of biomass from MSAVI2 was lower in desert steppe and
Figure 5. Sensitivity analysis of VIs at 10-day interval over the period of April–September in different natural zones: (a) mountain steppe; (b) plain steppe; (c) desert steppe and Gobi desert zone.

Gobi desert area and it employed to calculate biomass in the case study area. Figure 6
shows the biomass amount of the case study area from August of 1998 to 2001. It was
found that the amount of biomass decreased by 50.7% during the period 1998–2001 and
annual mean decreasing percentage is 19.8%. After calculation of biomass, the severity of
degradation is designated and the size of land in each desertification class was estimated.
The result show that 154899 km2 area of case study area is very severe degraded during the
 Vegetation indices 221

80 80

70 70

60 60

Biomass (g/m2 )
Biomass (g/m2 )

50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
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50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66

EVI (digital number) MSAVI2 (digital number)

80

70

60
Biomass (g/m2 )

50

40

30

20

10

0
120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190
NDVI (digital number)
Figure 4. The relation between biomass (g/m2) and vegetation indices in the desert steppe and Gobi desert zone.

1998 and 2001. Detailed information about amount of land in each desertification class as
represented in table 3. The map of vegetation degradation of the case study area is shown in
figure 7.
Figure 7.
6. Vegetation
The biomassdegradation
amount of map
the case
of the
study
casearea
study area. km2) from 1998 to 2001.
(349773

6. Conclusion

The main objective of this article was to monitor vegetation degradation in semi-arid and
arid area of Mongolia. In order to monitor vegetation degradation, different VIs were
tested based on the spectral signatures of the vegetation types, to estimate the vegetation
biomass. The article has demonstrated, in general, that satellite remote sensing data has
considerable scope as a tool for monitoring vegetation degradation and also it has
presented that the amount of biomass in some area of semi arid and arid area of country
decreased highly during the period 1998–2001. It should be noted that in this article, a
period of four years is considered and further study is necessary to observe biomass
changes for a longer term.
 Downloaded by [University of Ulster Library] at 04:02 28 November 2014

222

Table 2. Correlation functions and coefficients between each vegetation index and biomass (mb) and standard errors of estimates of biomass for various vegetation indices in
different natural zones.

EVI MSAVI2 NDVI

Natural zones Function r STE Function r STE Function r STE

Mountain steppe mb = 4.4088e0.015 EVI 0.64 7.64 mb = 0.0007e0.1752 MSAVI 2 0.53 11.70 mb = 1.7528e0.0171 NDVI 0.53 14.47
T. Javzandulam et al..

Plain steppe mb = 7.7796e0.0126 EVI 0.65 17.56 mb = 0.0091e0.1350 MSAVI 2 0.50 5.47 mb = 0.7714e0.0213 NDVI 0.56 13.57
Desert steppe and Gobi desert mb = 0.1407e0.047 EVI 0.48 6.68 mb = 2E − 06e0.2682 MSAVI 2 0.59 3.45 mb = 0.0017e0.0537 NDVI 0.41 9.48
 Vegetation indices 223

0.25
NDVI
0.2
MSAVI 2
0.15 EVI
Sensitivity value 0.1
0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
-0.15 a. mountain steppe
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-0.2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
(a) Finite-difference interval (10-day interval from April to September

0.25
NDVI
0.2
MSAVI 2
0.15 EVI
Sensitivity value

0.1
0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
-0.15 b. plain steppe
-0.2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
(b) Finite-difference interval (10-day interval from April to September

0.25
0.2 NDVI
MSAVI 2
0.15
EVI
Sensitivity value

0.1
0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
c. desert steppe
-0.15 and Gobi desert
-0.2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 12 13 14 15 16 17
(c) Finite-difference interval (10-day interval from April to September

Figure 5. Sensitivity analysis of VIs at 10-day interval over the period of April–September in different natural
zones: (a) mountain steppe; (b) plain steppe; (c) desert steppe and Gobi desert zone.
 224 T. Javzandulam et al.

30

25

Biomass(x10 4 ) ton
20

15

10

5
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0
1998 1999 2000 2001

Figure 6. The biomass amount of the case study area (349773 km2) from 1998 to 2001.

Table 3. Percentages of land in each desertification class.

Total land area

(km2) Very severe Severe Moderate Slight Non-effected

Area (km2) % Area (km2) % Area (km2) % Area (km2) % Area (km2) %

349772 154899 31.4% 106531 21.6% 182119 36.9% 18378 3.7% 31811 6.4%

99o25’E
46o48’ N
N
Very severe
Severe
Moderate
Slight
Unaffected
0 150
km
41o35’ N
111o58’E

Figure 7. Vegetation degradation map of the case study area.

 Vegetation indices 225

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