Remote monitoring of forest response to changed soil moisture regime due to river regulation

Abstract

Floodplain forest response to changed soil moisture regime and nutrient availability due to river regulation was studied using remote sensing (ETM) data. Images of May and October 2001 were used to prepare NDVI, SAVI, 5/4-ratio images and ETM band 7. Comparisons of the LAI, NDVI, 5/4-ratios and ETM band 7 mean values were done to find out the differences between the flooded and non-flooded sites. Unsupervised clustering of images was done using single transformed channels, i.e. NDVI, SAVI, 5/4-ratio and ETM band 7 to find seasonal variations in the values of these indices. The results were found to be in agreement with ground research.

Keywords

• floodplain forest
• flood elimination
• soil moisture regime
• landsat etm
• lai
• ndvi
• savi