Sar – Optical Remote Sensing Based Forest Cover and Greenness Esti-Mation Over India

Abstract

Abstract. Indian natural forest has a high ecological significance as it holds much biodiversity and is primarily affected due to deforestation. The present study exhibits the forest cover change on Global Forest Non-Forest (FNF) data for India and greenness trend using MOD15A2H LAI product, which is the best product available till date. JAXA uses of SAR datasets for forest classification based on FAO definitions. Later, Forest Survey of India (FSI) used different definitions for forest classification from FAO and was to compare with JAXA based forest cover. The global FNF study exhibited that total forest cover was reduced from 568249 Km2 to 534958 Km2 during 2007–17 in India. The significant loss of forest cover (33291.59 Km2; by −5.85% change) was primarily evident in Eastern Himalayas followed by Western Himalayas. Whereas forest cover increase was observed in Eastern and the Western Ghats from 2007 to 2017. The state of forest report by FSI states an increase in the forest cover from 690889 Km2 to 708273 Km2 during 2007–17 by 2.51%. The difference in forest cover as estimated by JAXA global FNF datasets and FSI report is attributed to differences in forest cover mapping definitions by both the agencies and use of varied datasets (SAR datasets by JAXA and optical datasets by FSI). It is to note that SAR is highly sensitive to forest cover and vegetation’s as compare to optical datasets. Recent satellite-based (2000–2018) LAI product reveals the increase in leaf area of vegetation during 2000–18. It may be attributed to proper human land use management and implications of green revolutions in the region. The greening in India is most evident from the croplands with insignificant contribution from forest cover.

Feedback From Vegetation to Interannual Variations of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall

“…Results revealed a significant positive correlation of 0.67 between the MODIS LAI and LAI derived from the aggregated LISS-III data set. Lal et al (2019) also considered the MODIS LAI collection 6 data product (MOD15A2H) to diagnose the forest cover change and greenness trend over the Indian region after the validation of this data product by Yan et al (2016) at a global scale. Yan et al (2016) found that the MODIS LAI collection 6 product (MOD15A2H) is the highest quality LAI product available to-date based on the validation of this product against the ground-based measurements and an intercomparison with other satellite products.…”

“…Lal et al. (2019) also considered the MODIS LAI collection 6 data product (MOD15A2H) to diagnose the forest cover change and greenness trend over the Indian region after the validation of this data product by Yan et al. (2016) at a global scale.…”

The dark cloud with a silver lining: Assessing the impact of the SARS COVID-19 pandemic on the global environment

“…Such extreme measures to control the virus have potentially resulted in decreases of aerosols and atmospheric pollutants due to the disruption of anthropogenic-based emissions (https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2020/mar/20/coronavirus-the-week-the-world-shut-down). Aerosols have direct and indirect contributions on climate change at regional and global scales (Huang et al, 2014;Menon et al, 2002;Qian and Giorgi, 1999) as increased levels of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) affects atmospheric stability and precipitation as aerosols disturb the scattering and absorption of solar radiation (Jiang et al, 2016), the hydrological cycle (Prasad et al, 2004) and vegetation cover and its growth (Lal et al, 2019;Sarkar and Kafatos, 2004). In addition to climatic effects, aerosols increase respiratory problems in humans and decrease visibility in urban areas (Prasad et al, 2005).…”

Effect of lockdown due to SARS COVID-19 on aerosol optical depth (AOD) over urban and mining regions in India

“…Countless studies have already unveiled the importance of aerosol research, and also demonstrated the direct and indirect contributions of aerosols on the climate change at regional to global scales ( Qian and Giorgi, 1999 ; Menon, 2002 ; Huang et al, 2014 ). The aerosol optical depth (AOD) affects the atmospheric stability and precipitation as aerosols disturb the scattering and absorption of solar radiation ( Jiang et al, 2016 ; Shaw and Gorai, 2018 ), the hydrological cycle ( Prasad et al, 2004 ), and vegetation cover and its growth ( Lal et al, 2019 ; Sarkar and Kafatos, 2004 ). Apart from climatic effects, aerosol causes many serious health-related issues (i.e., asthma, premature death, lung cancer, cardiopulmonary mortality, and pulmonary inflammation) ( Prasad et al, 2005 ; Huang et al, 2012 ; Mulenga and Siziya, 2019 ).…”