Vegetation remote sensing monitoring: an important basis for Earth's ecological protection and sustainable development

With the continuous expansion of human activities, the pressure on Earth's ecosystems is gradually increasing. Vegetation, as a crucial component of ecosystems, constrains their balance and acts as an "indicator" of global change. Changes in vegetation cover directly reflect the degree of human impact on the natural environment. Vegetation cover refers to the degree to which vegetation covers the ground surface and is an important indicator for evaluating vegetation resources such as forests, grasslands, and farmland. Therefore, remote sensing monitoring of vegetation cover is of great significance for understanding relevant information on ecological protection and sustainable development.

Remote sensing monitoring of vegetation coverage

With the continuous development and popularization of remote sensing technology, hyperspectral remote sensing technology has become one of the most advanced remote sensing technologies. It has also been widely applied in ecological environment monitoring and vegetation cover analysis, providing a completely new way to study the characteristics and composition of the Earth's surface.

Vegetation Coverage Monitoring Principle

Hyperspectral remote sensing technology is based on the reflection and radiative transfer mechanisms of remotely sensed targets. It extracts and analyzes information by acquiring the reflectance spectrum of these targets. In remotely sensed images, the spectral curves of vegetated areas exhibit distinct characteristics; the reflectance of vegetation changes with wavelength. By analyzing these spectral curves, the characteristics of vegetation reflectance variation with wavelength can be obtained, thus revealing information such as vegetation type and vegetation cover. Different types of vegetation can be identified and classified, and different vegetation covers can be accurately calculated, thereby enabling the acquisition and analysis of vegetation species, structure, and function.

△ Distribution of vegetation coverage in Wuxi City in August 2023

CAS Xiguang Aerospace - Vegetation Coverage Inversion

By combining hyperspectral imagery to acquire interannual regional data, the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) is calculated using band analysis, and the percentage of vegetation cover is further retrieved. Interannual vegetation cover distribution analysis is used to determine changes in vegetation area and distribution within the region. Simultaneously, the EVI data is used to assess vegetation growth and health, enabling timely warnings for problematic areas.

△ Distribution of Enhanced Vegetation Index in Wuxi City, August 2023

The applications of vegetation cover remote sensing inversion cover multiple fields, including environmental ecology, agricultural production, desertification control, and urbanization planning. Taking the ecological environment as an example, vegetation cover is a crucial indicator for assessing ecological environment quality and vegetation type characteristics. Remote sensing technology enables large-scale, multi-time-period monitoring and assessment of vegetation cover, providing a scientific basis for nature conservation and ecological restoration. In desertification control, vegetation cover inversion can provide information such as ground cover and vegetation productivity, thereby guiding desertification control and ecological restoration. In agricultural production, vegetation cover inversion can provide field vegetation information, improving crop production efficiency and promoting sustainable agricultural development.

In summary, vegetation cover remote sensing inversion technology has broad application prospects in environmental ecology, agricultural production, desertification control, and urbanization planning. Understanding and mastering the methods and technologies of vegetation cover inversion, and deeply exploring its application value in different fields, will help promote ecological civilization construction and the sustainable development of human society.