Why Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)?

Authors

Francisco Zapata, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Eric Smith, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Nguyen Hoang Phuong, Thang Long UniversityFollow

Publication Date

9-1-2021

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-21-78

Abstract

Plants play a very important role in ecological systems -- they transform CO2 into oxygen. It is therefore very important to be able to estimate the overall amount of live green vegetation in a given area. The most efficient way to provide such a global analysis is to use remote sensing, i.e., multi-spectral photos taken from satellites, drones, planes, etc. At present, one of the most efficient ways to detect, based on remote sensing data, how much live green vegetation an area contains is to compute the value of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). In this paper, we provide a theoretical explanation of why this particular index is efficient.