APPLICATION OF LANDSAT-DERIVED NDVI IN MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT OF VEGETATION COVER CHANGES IN CENTRAL SERBIA, Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, February 2019, Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 119 - 129; DOI:10.26471/cjees/2019/014/064 - Carpathian Journal of Earth And Environmental Sciences

Miško M. MILANOVIĆ¹, Tanja MICIĆ^2*, Tin LUKIĆ^1,2, Snežana S. NENADOVIĆ³, Biljana BASARIN², Dejan J. FILIPOVIĆ¹, Milisav TOMIĆ⁴, Ivan SAMARDŽIĆ¹, Zoran SRDIĆ⁵, Gojko NIKOLIĆ⁶, Miloš M. NINKOVIĆ¹, Dušan SAKULSKI⁷ & Branko RISTANOVIĆ²

¹University of Belgrade, Faculty of Geography, Studentski trg 3/3, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia;

²University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia, corresponding author: tanja.micic91@gmail.com

³Laboratory for Material Science, Institute of Nuclear Sciences ‘‘Vinča’’, POBox 522, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia,

⁴Service for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment, Branch RB Kolubara, Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Lazarevac 11550, Serbia

⁵Military Geographical Institute, Mije Kovačevića 5, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.

⁶University of Montenegro, Faculty of Philosphy, Institute for Geography, Danila Bojovića 3, 81400 Nikšić, Montenegro.

⁷University of Novi Sad, BioSense Institute, Zorana Đinđića 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.

APPLICATION OF LANDSAT-DERIVED NDVI IN MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT OF VEGETATION COVER CHANGES IN CENTRAL SERBIA, Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, February 2019, Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 119 - 129; DOI:10.26471/cjees/2019/014/064

Full text

This paper evaluates the application of the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in the monitoring and assessment of temporal vegetation cover changes (from 2006 to 2014) in three municipalities of Central Serbia: Topola, Jagodina and Kuršumlija. Additionally, special focus is placed on the analysis of the forest areas and the possible use of NDVI in the forest management sector. Results of the NDVI applied through Idrisi software identify all vegetation cover types and their typical values for presented case studies and observed periods. Obtained results for Serbian case studies indicate two major observations outlined for the investigated period. It was noticed that vegetation cover is experiencing a certain decrease, and that certain discrepancies exists between the NDVI and official forest area statistics for certain municipalities. The study outlines the positive outcomes of the applied remote sensing techniques, especially for southern Serbian municipalities where illegal logging activities are pronounced. Hence, this method proved very promising for countries performing national forest inventories, such as Serbia, providing local forest managers with several essential up-to-date information about vegetation cover changes on an annual basis.