Vegetation cover change analysis from multi-temporal satellite data in Jharkhali Island, Sundarbans, India

Abstract

Present study intends to quantify change of natural vegetation cover (mainly of mangrove forest) in Sundarbans Island between the time span of 2004-2010, when sustained efforts of a forestation and conservation has been in vogue. Vegetation indices like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Global Environmental Monitoring Index (GEMI), Optimized Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (OSAVI) and Transformed Difference Vegetation Index (TDVI) have been used to decipher the measure of vegetation cover in this island and its changes during the period. Radiometric normalization technique is used to nullify various imaging condition anomalies while comparing multi-temporal data for change detection analysis. TDVI has been found to be more effective in vegetation cover change detection in such deltaic environment. Present study shows an overall net increase of vegetation cover in the island as a result of sustained conservation and plantation efforts.