THE ESTIMATE OF THE SPATIAL-TEMPORAL FEATURES OF VEGETATION COVER OF KAZAKHSTAN BASED ON TIME SERIES SATELLITE INDECES IN 2000-2015

Abstract

The article presents the evaluation of spatial-temporal characteristics of Kazakhstan arid and semi-arid areas' vegetation on the basis of time series of differential and integral vegetation indices. It is observed the negative trend of integral indices for the period of 2000-2015. This fact characterizes the increase of stress influence of weather conditions on vegetation in Kazakhstan territory during last decade. Simultaneously there is a positive trend of areas of zones with low values of IVCI index. Zoning of the territory of Kazakhstan was carried out according to the long-term values of the normalized integral vegetation index, which is characteristic of the accumulated amount of green season biomass. Negative trend is marked for areas of high productivity zones, long-term changes in the areas of low productivity zones have tend to increase. However long-term values of the area of the middle zone are insignificantly changed. Location boundaries of this zone in the latitudinal direction connects with a weather conditions of the year: all wet years, the average area is located between 46°- 49°N, and the all dry years - between 47°30'- 54°N. The map of frequency of droughts was formed by low values of the integral vegetation condition index which calculated from satellite data.