Vegetation Indices for Spatio-Temporal Analysis of the Quality of Can Gio Mangrove for Biodiversity and Conservation

Abstract

Mangrove forest has an important role in protection against coastal erosion and carbon dioxide sequestration for climate change mitigation. The natural increase in vegetation quality can explain the increase in its health and biodiversity. This study aimed to examine the health of Can Gio Mangrove vegetation to determine its potential for preventing coastal erosion and maintaining biosphere’s conservation function. Algorithms in GIS and remote sensing were used along with the time-series temporal Landsat images in the 2010-2020 period to investigate the changes of vegetation indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). The results showed positive changes of vegetation values between dry season and rain season, and large distribution of their good values in the 2010-2020 period. Decrease in the vegetation area and stability of surface waters area indicate the expansion of urbanized area. These results may support modification of the policy to control the urbanization, to maintain the mangrove biosphere reserve, and to enhance coastline stabilization.