Remote Sensing, a Tool for the Evaluation of Green Vegetation

抄録

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index based on NOAA data can reveal the progression of desertification, deforestation, and drought damage to arable crops as well as chronological changes in cropping patterns on a regional scale.
Landsat/MSS and /TM data which are characterized by high spectral/ground resolutions have contributed to practical agricultural management. Techniques for crop discrimination and crop mapping have made such rapid progress that we can classify crop types with more than 80% of accuracy. Vegetation Indices derived from Landsat/TM are useful for estimating canopy parameters such as biomass, coverage and leaf area.
Plant stress information including water and nutrient deficits, disease attacks and weed infestation has also been acquired from space. Some attempts to estimate the meteorological damage to crops caused by cold wind and flooding have been successful. Therefore it is considered that satellite remote sensing could be a useful tool for the evaluation of green vegetation.
To promote the evaluation of green vegetation precisely, timely and effectively, it is necessary to: 1) develop sensor systems suitable for vegetation science, 2) develop techniques to combine remote sensing data with other sources of information and models, 3) develop a global vegetation monitoring system.