Complex method for land degradation estimation

Abstract

Satellite data of high spatial resolution have become publicly available since the launch of the EU Copernicus program, and their automated processing methods for solving a large number of diverse applied problems have received further development. Our task in this article is to analyze the dynamics of the land degradation level using land degradation assessment approaches based on satellite monitoring and taking appropriate measures. Within this work authors have developed the complex method for land degradation estimation that uses different schemes for separate land cover and crop types at country level based on satellite and modelling data. The deforestation was considered as land degradation in forest areas. For agricultural land, land degradation is determined by comparing the actual leaf area index (LAI) with the simulated (ideal) LAI, and for uncultivated land it is based on normalized difference vegetation index trend analysis from satellite information.