Relationship between landform classification and vegetation (case study: southwest of Fars province, Iran)

Abstract

This study is aimed at investigating the relationship between landform classification and vegetation in the southwest of Fars province, Iran. First, topographic position index (TPI) is used to perform landform classification using a Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) with resolution of 30 m. The classification has ten classes; high ridges, midslope ridges, upland drainage, upper slopes, open slopes, plains, valleys, local ridges, midslope drainage and streams. Visual interpretation indicates that for the local, midslope and high ridge landforms, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values and tree heights are higher as compared to the other landforms. In addition, it is found that there are positive and significant correlations betweenNDVI and tree height (r = 0.923), and landform and NDVI (r = 0.640). This shows that landform classification and NDVI can be used to predict tree height in the area. High correlation of determination (R2) 0.909 is obtained for the prediction of tree height using landform classification and NDVI.

Keywords

• landform classification
• topographic position index
• normalized difference vegetation index (ndvi)
• tree heights
• correlation coefficients