VEGETATION INDICES

(Version February 2021)

M. S. Dhavne
Student, Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management, Ahmedabad, IN – manthan.dhavne.20mc@iitram.ac.in

KEY WORDS: Agriculture, Leaf Reflectance, Photosynthesis, Forests, Vegetation, Canopy.

ABSTRACT:

This paper discusses about fundamental concepts of biophysical characteristics of vegetation and how remotely sensed data can be
processed to extract valuable information. Governing factors for leaf reflectance which elaborates about internal structure of leaf and
how light is reflected from leaf and then remote sensing derived vegetation indices which are elementary and efficient algorithms for
perceptible and approximate evaluation of growth dynamics, cover of vegetation, and more applications.

1. INTRODUCTION
Vegetation covers nearly seventy percent of Earth surface.
Information about various vegetation species, morphology,
changes in vegetation growth cycles, impact of pollution on
vegetation can provide valuable understanding about weather,
edaphic, topography characteristics of an area. Especially in a
country like India where major occupation of most citizens is
agriculture and it has to feed billions of people, the scientists
have dedicated noteworthy power to develop remote sensing
systems and digital image processing algorithms to excerpt
extensive vegetation biophysical information from remote
sensing data. Many remote sensing techniques are common in
nature and are practiced over a broad range of vegetated
landscapes containing, forests, agriculture, grasslands, tundra,
deserts, and urban vegetation.
Higher spatial and temporal resolution can be retrieved with the
help of UAS, due to which viable accurate agriculture
applications possible to the submeter resolution of pixel. There
is a drawback in UAS platforms, payload weight varies with
flying time. Higher payload carrying UAS will fly for a shorter
time duration and vice versa.
2. DOMINANT FACTORS CONTROLLING LEAF
REFLECTANCE
Pathfinding work by scientists like Gates, Gausmann, Myers
and others determined how leaf pigments, leaf water content
and internal scattering affect the reflectance and transmittance
properties of leaves.

1.1 Remote Sensing Platforms

Satellite based remote sensing systems can be cost-effective as

it has high spectral resolution and long-time data series of
persistent and proportionate data is available. A few satellite
platforms such as Landsat 7-8 have unrestricted access to
visible and multispectral data. Nonetheless, there are two major
issues associated with platforms like these for accurate
agricultural applications, (i) per pixel resolution (30m 2/pixel of
Landsat and 500m2/pixel of MODIS) and (ii) orbital period (16
days for Landsat & 26 days for SPOT). In the recent past
advances have been made on both these problems, newer
satellites have better pixel resolution compared to its
predecessors. WorldView-2 has spatial resolution of 2m2/pixel
and has an orbital period of 100 minutes, moreover it was the
first commercial satellite to have eight spectral sensors. Figure 1. Spectral reflectance attributes of fresh, green
vegetation for the wavelength range 0.4 – 2.6 µm.
Revisitation time of 16 days in satellite remote sensing system
makes water and nutrient management challenging. Also, 2.1 Effect of visible light in the pigments of Palisade
passive remote sensors cannot capture through clouds, so it Mesophyll Cells
becomes unproductive in overcast conditions.
Photosynthesis is a process by which green plants and a few
Both above mentioned problems can be mitigated by decreasing more organisms utilize sunlight to extract nutrients from CO 2
altitude of sensors which is not possible in a satellite system. and H2O.
Hence, airborne and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be 6 CO 2+ 6 H 2 O+light energy →C 6 H 12 O6 +6 O2
implemented. The former can be costly due to exorbitant value
Light energy coming from sun powers the photosynthesis
of aircrafts and pilots. While the latter option has become
process. Carbon dioxide from atmosphere and water absorbed
omnipresent with economical aircrafts and camera payloads
by plant through roots combine and form a glucose molecule
varying visible, thermal & near infrared, 3D, LiDAR
and oxygen is also released.
collectively mentioned as Unmanned Aerial System (UAS).

1
Figure 2. Electron microscope image of a green leaf
Photosynthesis takes place inside common green leaf in two sets
of food preparing cells – palisade parenchyma and spongy
parenchyma mesophyll cells
Molecules of a common green plant have matured to consume
wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum very well are
known as pigments.
Figure 3. Absorption spectra of chlorophyll a and b pigments.
Much of the incident blue and red wavelength energy is
absorbed by chlorophyll a and b pigments. Chlorophyll a is
centered at
wavelengths of 0.43 and 0.66 µm and chlorophyll b is centered
at wavelengths of 0.45 and 0.65 µm. Lack of absorption in
green and yellow wavelengths causes a trough in above graph
which illustrates the reason behind green color of leaves. When
plants deteriorate in autumn or undergoes stress, the chlorophyll
pigments may lose its dominance and other pigments like
carotenes gain paramountcy in deciding color of the leaf.
In fall seasons, production of chlorophyll halts, causing other
pigments like carotenes which impart yellow color turns out to
be more discernible to our eyes. Also in the same season a few
trees also produces anthocyanin in large quantities, causing the
leaves to appear bright red.
2
Figure 4. Absorption spectra of β-carotene, Phycoerythrin &
Phycocyanin.
2.2 Effect of Near-Infrared Energy on Spongy Mesophyll
Cells
The near-infrared reflectance strengthen substantially in the
range of 700 – 1200 nm in a typical green leaf. The reason
behind this phenomenon is if plants absorb energy with the
same efficacy as they do in the visible range, they will get very
warm and the proteins would receive irreparable damage.
Consequently, plants have evolved to either reflect or transmit
such large amount of near-infrared energy.
The amount of infrared energy reflected in a leaf is controlled
by the spongy mesophyll layer. This layer is commonly placed
beneath the palisade mesophyll layer and consists of many cells
& intercellular air spaces (Figure 2).
Following are the major reasons that plant canopies reflect so
much near-infrared energy:
 The leaf rebounds 40-60% of the falling near infrared
energy from spongy mesophyll (Figure 1), and
 The leftover 45-50% of energy transmitted through leaves
can be repeatedly rebounded by the leaves underneath.
This is known as leaf additive reflectance.
The accord maintained by near-infrared and red canopy
reflectance has ensued growth of biomass-estimating techniques
and remote sensing vegetation indices that use multiple
measurements in visible and near-infrared range.
2.3 Effect of Middle Infrared Energy in the Spongy
Mesophyll
Water is essential for a plant to grow. A leaf obtains water
through plant’s roots. The water is transferred from roots to
stem and enters the leaf through petiole. Inside a leaf, water is
carried by veins to cells. If plant is watered abundantly and it is
on maximum holding capacity it is said to be fully turgid. Much
of this water is present in spongy mesophyll cells. If due to
scarce rainfall or water shortage, plant will hold amount of
water less than it can hold then it is said to relatively turgid. It
would be useful to have remote sensing instrument that would
be sensitive to amount of water plant is holding. Information
like this can be obtained by remote sensing in passive
microwave, middle-infrared, and thermal infrared part of the
electro-magnetic spectrum.
Vegetation reflectance peak occurs at about 1.6 and 2.2 µm
betwixt dominant atmospheric water absorption bands (Figure
1). Water is a great absorber of middle infrared energy, so more
the turgidity of the leaves lower the middle infrared reflectance
and vice versa.
A plant loses much of its water due to transpiration. This occurs
when sun heats up the water in the leaves, causing the water to
evaporate by stomata. Plants loses much of its water due to this
phenomenon and if roots are not able to replace this water,
leaves wilt, photosynthesis stops and plants die. Monitoring the
moisture content of plant canopies is done by passive
microwave & thermal infrared remote sensing.
Practical applications of plant moisture data are:
 Scheduling of irrigation
 Estimation of stress and
 Harvest design for agriculture, rangeland and forestry
management
3. REMOTE SENSING-DERIVED VEGETATION
INDICES
Vegetation Indices are dimension-less, radiometric
computations that specify relative abundance and activity of
green vegetation including green biomass, chlorophyll content,
leaf area index, percentage cover and absorbed
photosynthetically absorbed radiation. A vegetation index shall:
 to reduce external influencing factors such as viewing
angle, sun angle & atmosphere for persistent temporal and
spatial connections.
 to reduce internal influencing factors such as soil
alterations, changes in aged or woody vegetation, canopy
background alterations and contours.
 link a few unique measurable biophysical parameters like
leaf area index, APAR, either biomass as element of
quality control and corroboration endeavor.
 enhance susceptibility to plant biophysical parameters,
ideally for linear reply to a broad spectrum of vegetation
conditions and to aid corroboration and adjustment of the
index.
A few widely used vegetation indices are:
3.1 Simple Ratio – SR
The earliest vegetation index was proposed by Cohen in 1991.
Mathematical form is given below:
ρred
SR=
ρnir
The simple ratio provides relevant information about leaf area
index (LAI) or vegetation biomass. This ratio is mainly
susceptible to bio-mass & leaf area index alterations in high
vegetation zones like forests.
3.2 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index – NDVI
Mathematically form of NDVI is below:
ρnir −ρred
NDVI =
ρnir + ρred
The NDVI is a crucial vegetation index due to:
3
 Monitoring of climatic and yearly changes can be
performed.
 The process of ratioing decreases numerous kinds of
amplicative disturbances such as shadows of clouds, sun
illuminations differences and some contour alterations in
various bands of multiple-date imagery.
However there are some disadvantages as well which are
mentioned below:
 Highly susceptible to canopy backdrop alterations. NDVI
values are steep when darker canopy background exist.
 Such ratio based indexes are non-linear and can be
impacted by additive noises like atmospheric path
radiance.
Scientists still continue to use NDVI heavily. NDVI images
derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
(MODIS) data is shown in figure below:
Figure 5. NDVI composite image derived from MODIS data
acquired from October 1, 2012, to November 1, 2012.
3.3 Normalized Difference Water or Moisture Index –
NDWI or NDMI
Hardisky and Gao found Normalized Difference Water or
Moisture Index build on Landsat Thematic Mapper middle and
near-infrared bands was profoundly corresponded with water
content in canopy and trailed changes firmly in water stress &
plant biomass than NDVI.
ρnir −ρ swir
NDMI ∨NDWI =
ρnir + ρ swir
3.4 Perpendicular Vegetation Index – PVI
The Perpendicular Vegetation Index which was established on
MSS data was unique. Guyon (2011) used a more collective
PVI to monitor leaf phenology in decidious broadleaf forests
where:
( NIR−aRed−b )
PVI=
√1+a 2
3.5 Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index – SAVI
ρnir −ρred
SAVI= (1+ L )
ρnir + ρred + L
Here, L is sunshade backdrop adjustment factor. The value of L
is dependent on the corresponding vegetation density. In regions
where vegetation is scarce and on bare soils, L becomes nearly
one, whereas L becomes zero in densely vegetated areas like REFERENCES
tropical rainforests. The usefulness of SAVI is to reduce soil
“noise” found in NDVI. Jensen J.R., 2015: Introductory Digital Image Processing.
Pearson Education Inc.
3.6 Enhanced Vegetation Index – EVI
Jinru X., Baofeng S., 2017: Significant Remote Sensing
Vegetation Indices: A Review of Developments and
ρnir −ρ red Applications. Journal of Sensors doi.org/10.1155/2017/1353691
EVI =G
ρnir +C 1 ρred −C2 ρblue + L
EVI, a modified form of NDVI where L is soil adjustment
factor taken as 1.0, C1 and C2 are used for correction in red band
by the use of blue band and are taken as 6.0 and 7.5. G is a gain
factor set to 2.5. This algorithm has better susceptibility to
immense bio-mass regions and has enhanced vegetation
monitoring by reducing atmospheric influences and reduction in
canopy background signal.

Figure 6. MODIS EVI map of earth gathered over a 16-day

duration.

3.7 Normalized Difference Built-Up Index — NDBI

When employed on urban & suburban issues, data analysts are

more attentive in tracking the spatial dispersion and sprawl of
urban areas. The above-mentioned information is utilized for
planning applications and watershed run-off prediction.
Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) was conceived
by Zha:
NDBI =Bu−NDVI

NIRTM 4 −MidIRTM 5
Here, B u=
NIRTM 4 −MidIRTM 5
In these method, produced image contains only barren and built
up pixels having positive values while all the other features
having negative values. Accuracy rate of this method is around
92%.
4. CONCLUSION

Vegetation Indices (VIs) combining near-infrared and visible

bands have notably enhanced the susceptibility of the disclosure
of green vegetation. Various VIs are developed owing to
different environments as they have their own fluctuating and
complicated attributes. Every VI has its own definite equation
of green vegetation made for definite uses with a few inhibiting
factors. Utmost caution should be adopted while choosing VI
for practical applications by taking into account and evaluating
the benefits and disadvantages & then blend them for a certain
environment. New frontiers in vegetation indices can be
explored with advancements in multi-spectral & hyper-spectral
remote sensing.