USE OF INTEGRAL VEGETATION INDICES IN THE ANALYSIS OF VEGETATION COVER CONDITION AND ITS CHANGE TRENDS BASED ON SATELLITE DATA

Abstract

Drought phenomena are among the most significant factors determining the productivity of agroecosystems and the resilience of agricultural production under climate change. For Kazakhstan, the majority of whose territory falls within the zone of risky agriculture, drought monitoring, vegetation cover assessment, and the identification of change trends are of particular importance. The increasing frequency and intensity of dry periods lead to substantial losses in cereal crop yields, directly affecting the country's food security.

Traditional methods for assessing agroclimatic conditions are based on ground-based observations of air temperature and precipitation. Despite their informativeness, these data are limited by the spatial discreteness of the meteorological station network and do not fully reflect the spatial diversity of drought conditions. In this regard, remote sensing (RS) methods have gained particular importance, providing systematic and spatially continuous monitoring of vegetation conditions.

Among the tools of remote sensing, vegetation indices have become widely used for assessing vegetation dynamics, detecting stress conditions, and identifying interannual variations.

The aim of this study is to assess the dynamics of vegetation and drought conditions in the northern regions of Kazakhstan (Akmola, Kostanay, and North Kazakhstan regions) for the period 2000–2023 using vegetation indices, including the developed IVCI index, as well as to verify it against ground-based agroclimatic indicators and cereal crop yield statistics.