Abstract
In order to achieve an appropriate balance between regional maintenance and tourism demand, we applied the NDVI for moss vegetation covering the stone pavement along the Kumano Pilgrimage Routes, one of the World Heritage Sites located in Wakayama Pref., Japan and conducted periodic research into their changes. We employed the NDVI imaging system, which consists of two commercially available digital cameras by which the reflected radiance in RGB and NIR images is respectively obtained. The NDVIIM value calculated by the digital image analysis was used for the evaluation of vegetation. The NDVI in "Daimonzaka" is quite a bit smaller than that of Waroudaishi, which corresponds to the number of visitors to the individual sites. According to the NDVI image from both sites, the damaged portion appeared around the center of the pavement due to the influence of human tread pressure. Moreover, there was significant correlation between the NDVI and NDVIIM, in which the existence of moss vegetation exceeding constancy was detected, although differences in the distribution values of 2007 and 2008 were respectively observed. Therefore, proximity remote sensing of the moss vegetation via digital imaging was considered an effective way to index the influences of the increased visitor traffic.
