Classification of vegetation in North Tibet Plateau based on MODIS time-series data

Abstract

Based on the 16d-composite MODIS (moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer)-NDVI(normalized difference vegetation index) time-series data in 2004, vegetation in North Tibet Plateau was classified and seasonal variations on the pixels selected from different vegetation type were analyzed. The Savitzky-Golay filtering algorithm was applied to perform a filtration processing for MODIS-NDVI time-series data. The processed time-series curves can reflect a real variation trend of vegetation growth. The NDVI time-series curves of coniferous forest, high-cold meadow, high-cold meadow steppe and high-cold steppe all appear a mono-peak model during vegetation growth with the maximum peak occurring in August. A decision-tree classification model was established according to either NDVI time-series data or land surface temperature data. And then, both classifying and processing for vegetations were carried out through the model based on NDVI time-series curves. An accuracy test illustrates that classification results are of high accuracy and credibility and the model is conducive for studying a climate variation and estimating a vegetation production at regional even global scale.