NDVI

NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is one of the popular indicators in remote sensing and GIS used to estimate the state of vegetation, vegetation coverage and its distribution. This vegetation index is based on the difference between near-infrared and red light bands of satellites, drone and aerial sensors which is used to recognize and analyze healthy vegetation. The NDVI is computed according to the formula NDVI = (NIR − Red) / (NIR + Red) which gives an output of values from -1 to +1. Generally, high positive values show dense and healthy vegetation, low or negative values may indicate bare soil, water, buildings or unhealthy vegetation.

NDVI is widely used in precision agriculture, crop monitoring, forestry, environmental assessment, land use evaluation, drought monitoring and ecosystem management. With the help of NDVI images, changes in vegetation state can be identified by comparing NDVI images taken on different dates. NDVI can help to identify areas of crop stress and seasonal growth and evaluate changes in the environment. NDVI imagery can be obtained from satellite images like Sentinel-2 and Landsat and multispectral drone imagery.