Evaluation of the monitoring capability of various vegetation indices and mainstream satellite band settings for grassland drought

Abstract

In the context of global climate change and increasing human activities, grassland drought has become increasingly severe and complex. The monitoring of grassland drought is crucial for reducing drought-related losses and ensuring national ecological security. This study used the coupled PROSPECT and SAIL radiative transfer models (PROSAIL) to simulate canopy reflectance, considering factors such as grassland growth stages and varying drought conditions. Our objective was to reveal the spectral response characteristics of grasslands to varying drought conditions and identify sensitive spectral bands suitable for drought monitoring during different grassland growth stages. We aligned commonly available satellite bands from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS), Sentinel 2, Landsat 8, WorldView 2, and Gaofen 2 (GF 2) with these sensitive bands to assess the capabilities of existing satellite data for drought monitoring. Furthermore, this research evaluated the suitability of 16 commonly used remote sensing vegetation indices for grassland drought monitoring, including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), Difference Vegetation Index (DVI), Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI), Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index (ARVI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Global Vegetation Moisture Index (GVMI), Land Surface Water Index (LSWI), Visible and Shortwave Infrared Drought Index (VSDI), Water index(WI), Moisture Stress Index(MSI), Normalized Difference Water Index(NDWI), Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII), Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI), and Optimized Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (OSAVI). The simulation and analysis results revealed: 1) Grassland in different growth stages exhibit similar sensitivities to certain spectral bands, namely those within the ranges of 540 nm–720 nm, 1250 nm–1690 nm, 1805 nm–2190 nm, and 2264 nm–2500 nm, which are more sensitive to various drought conditions. 2) Suitable vegetation indices for both growing and stable stages include NDII, MSI, PRI, LSWI, and GVMI, with silhouette coefficients exceeding 0.6 for the growing stage and 0.7 for the stable stage. The least suitable vegetation index is DVI, with an average silhouette coefficient of 0.15 over the entire growth stage. 3) From the spectral band perspective, among the five assessed satellites, MODIS Band 7 exhibits the highest sensitivity to water content across all satellite bands. MODIS's band configuration is most suitable for monitoring grassland drought during different growth stages, while WorldView 2's band configuration is the least suitable.

Keywords

• Drought monitoring
• Canopy spectrum
• Grassland
• Vegetation index