A simple method to detect land changes sourcing from overgrazing, using remote sensing

Abstract

This is a technical paper, in the context of FP-7 CASCADE project, describing an overgrazed area in Cyprus and how remote sensing techniques can assist the procedure for detecting land degradation sourcing from animal overgrazing. Remote sensing is a tool recently introduced to such studies but indeed very useful and vital. Using satellite images it is possible to retrieve consecutive vegetation indices which can identify if there is any further land-vegetation degradation in a specific area of interest. This is crucial in the procedure for monitoring semi or highly overgrazed areas since this change detection can inform policy makers regarding the status of an area, in terms of degradation. In this paper remotely sensed data is analyzed to detect, in specific areas which are known as overgrazed, to detect if there is a change using three main vegetation indices, namely WDVI, NDVI and SAVI. Change detection techniques are applied on these three vegetation indices maps in order to detect any further areas overgrazing.