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. 2022 Mar 17:2022:2907921.
doi: 10.1155/2022/2907921. eCollection 2022.

A Remote Sensing Approach for Displaying the Changes in the Vegetation Cover at Az Zakhnuniyah Island at Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Wafa'a A Al-Taisan  1
Affiliations

A Remote Sensing Approach for Displaying the Changes in the Vegetation Cover at Az Zakhnuniyah Island at Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Wafa'a A Al-Taisan. Scientifica (Cairo). .

Abstract

In the terrestrial ecosystem, vegetation is the important component of exchanging of water and energy in biogeochemical and climate cycle. A study was conducted to detect the vegetation cover change at Az Zakhnuniyah island by using remote sensing techniques. It includes vegetation analysis using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) while comparing with climatological data including temperature, humidity, and precipitation. A clear trend was seen in climatological parameters where temperature and humidity were rising decade by decade although NDVI did not show. In addition, increasing soil salinization over the years was observed when soil salinity index was used. NDVI-based long-term decadal analysis on vegetation cover based on Landsat surface reflectance data showed increase of vegetation cover which was also linked to precipitation trends. Also, the short-term demi-decadal comparison using PROBA-V showed the vegetation cover reduction between 2015 and 2019. Nevertheless, the sea level surrounding the island also showed an increasing trend of 0.34 cm/y, which could be the cause of inundation in some parts of the island in future. Furthermore, all these trends need to be observed in entirety as many of those trends can be interlinked.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study area map showing Az Zakhnuniyah island. Base map credits: google maps.
Figure 2
Figure 2
General land cover maps (a) based on 1999-2000 NDVI, (b) based on 2010-2011 NDVI, and (c) based on 2019-2020 NDVI.
Figure 3
Figure 3
NDVI map for years (a) 2000, (b) 2011, and (c) 2020.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Above and below ground living biomass carbon density map. Units in tonnes of carbon/hectare.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Digital elevation model map showing elevation in m. Note: the fill sink operation was performed on this DEM later to remove many negative values which cause accuracy problems. The raw DEM is shown for better visualization.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Amplitude in cm of N2 tidal constituent of study area.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Amplitude in cm of 2N2 tidal constituent of study area.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Amplitude in cm of M2 tidal constituent of (a) larger local area surrounding the island for comparison and (b) global coverage for comparison.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Satellite altimetry data plotted for year-wise showing sea level changes (in cm).
Figure 10
Figure 10
Salinity index (SI) map of (a) 2000, (b) 2011, and (c) 2020.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Plant communities map including corals, seagrasses, and halophytic/xerophytic plants. Halophytic/xerophytic plants cover fraction for years (a) 2015 and (b) 2019.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Specific humidity map (in g/kg) of study area for (a) 2000, (b) 2011, and (c) 2020.
Figure 13
Figure 13
LST map (°C) of study area for (a) 2000, (b) 2011, and (c) 2020.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Precipitation map (in mm) of study area for (a) 2000, (b) 2011, and (c) 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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