Spatial and temporal changes in vegetation conditions in Paulist interior

Abstract

There is an increasing demand to better understand the dynamics of the vegetation conditions over time as a result of the improvement of remote sensing techniques. Yhis study aimed to analyse the spatio-temporal behavior of vegetation, stratified by land use in area located in Botucatu-SP. We sused21 Landsat-5 TM images in 25 years (1985 - 2010) of analysis. We applied conversion of the digital numbers to physical values, atmospheric and topographic corrections, which allowed to analyze the vegetation changes by using the VCI (Vegetation Condition Index) calculation. The VCI showed a good performance in analyzing the spatiotemporal vegetation condition at a local level, it is sensitive to local variations of rainfall, it enhances the variability of the intra-class land use for the vigor of vegetation. By applying the VCI we were able to observe the vegetation pattern of the semideciduous forest (land use class = Forest) present in the area, fact that makes this methodology recommended in future researches related to the analysis of the vegetation condition.