Title: Analysis of relationships between NDVI and climatic/hydrological parameters in the Yellow River basin

Authors: Zhifeng Yang, Chunhui Li, Gordon H. Huang, Yanpeng Cai

Addresses: Key Laboratory for Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. ' Environmental Systems Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2, Canada. ' Environmental Systems Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2, Canada

Abstract: NDVI is a key factor for describing variations of vegetation covers. In this research, NDVI values from 15 subregions and the main stream of the Yellow River basin during 1982-1998 were obtained and analysed. The results indicated that their peak values were observed in July or August annually. Annual mean values of NDVI increased across the basin except in the San-Hua and Upper-long subregions, implying that vegetation covers in most of the Yellow River basin were increasing over the 17 years. Moreover, significant positive correlations existed between NDVI values and climatic factors except a certain degree of time lags.

Keywords: NDVI; normalised difference vegetation index; vegetation cover; precipitation; run-off; Yellow River basin; China; climatic factors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2010.034233

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2010 Vol.42 No.1/2/3, pp.166 - 183

Published online: 30 Jul 2010 *

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