Abstract
Relationships between the NDVI and vegetation, especially for the nine dominant vegetation types of Tibetan Plateau, were examined and discussed using GIS and remotely sensed data. The results showed that the yearly averaged NDVI of the study region was 0.064. In 88.5% of the area, NDVI were lower than 0.1 and the monthly mean values never exceeded 0.1 throughout the whole year in half of the Plateau. The NDVI values steadily decreased from the southeast where evergreen and semi-evergreen rain forest was well developed to northwest where cold desert was dominant. It is clearly shown that the main vegetation types have their own NDVI character values, despite of the fact that the vegetation is sparse for the most part of the region.
