Original title: A commentary review on the use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the era of popular remote sensing
NDVIA vegetation index calculated from visible and near-infrared light measurements. is a number made from visible and near-infrared light that helps describe vegetation. Many multispectral sensors can calculate it, which has helped make it widely used, including with drones. But the number can be affected by the atmosphere and by the sensor, and it can stop showing useful differences when vegetation is dense. This review explains where NDVI is used and what users need to consider before trusting it.
Imagine using a kitchen scale to compare how much food is in different bowls. If the scale is affected by where it sits or it reaches its limit, the readings can mislead you. In this paper, the scale’s reading stands for NDVI, while the scale’s conditions stand for the atmosphere, vegetation density, and sensor factors that affect how the reading should be used.
Low-cost sensors let more people map vegetation from satellites, aircraft, and drones. But an NDVI map can mislead if users overlook how the atmosphere, sensor, or dense vegetation affects the result.
The abstract describes a review of NDVI applications and key considerations; it does not report a new experiment or quantify how often NDVI is misused. It does not provide detailed recommendations or establish how well NDVI performs for any particular sensor, location, or vegetation type.
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A commentary review on the use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the era of popular remote sensing — Sha Huang, Lina Tang, Joseph Pierre Hupy et al. — Journal of Forestry Research — doi:10.1007/s11676-020-01155-1
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.