Assessing Degree of Desertification Using Tasselled Cap Transformation and Spectral Indicators Techniques: Iraq

(Reem Tuama Yousuf and Ebtihal T AL-Khakani)

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Abstract

Remote sensing technology is an advanced approach for monitoring desertification by extracting a variety of spectral indicators derived from satellite images. This research aims to monitor and assess the degree of desertification in An-Najaf City using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images obtained on 7 August 2019. Three tasselled cap transformation (TCT) indices were employed: tasselled cap brightness (TCB), tasselled cap greenness (TCG), and tasselled cap wetness (TCW), in addition to the modified soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI), topsoil grain size index (GSI), and land surface albedo (albedo). Linear regression was performed on TCB-TCG, TCB-TCW, albedo-MSAVI, and GSI-MSAVI to select the group with the highest negative correlation. The two highest negative correlations were for the TCB-TCW model of coefficient r2=0.8894 and TCB-TCG of r2=0.8519. Based on these two models, the extracted degree of desertification index (DDI) showed a high overall accuracy of 88.14% for the TCB-TCW model, and 91.44% for the TCB-TCG model. The results of these two models demonstrate their effectiveness in evaluating the degree of desertification. In general, this study provides a simple, easy and effective method to monitor desertification levels in semi-arid lands.

KEYWORDS
Remote sensing, desertification index, Landsat 8, albedo, modified soil-adjusted vegetation 

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References

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