Temporal-Spatial Changes of Vegetation in the Yangtze River Delta Using MODIS/NDVI Data

The change of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can be used to illustrate the evolution of environment. Long term quantitative analysis of vegetation distribution and change detection which can reveal the cause of environment change, has become a hot-spot of environment research in recent years. NDVI obtained from the MODIS datasets from 2000 to 2011 were used to derive the average seasonal and annual variations of vegetation in the Yangtze River Delta, China. The results indicated that NDVI had an uneven spatial distribution with the highest level in South China and lowest level in the area around Shanghai. Variation of the seasonal change of NDVI is remarkable with the higher value in summer and fall, and the lower value in winter and spring, which exhibits a backward trend of NDVI during 2000-2011 excluding the autumn. Within the three metropolitans in the Yangtze River Delta, Hangzhou has the highest value of NDVI, while Shanghai has the lowest value of NDVI.