World Vegetation Map from NOAA/GVI Data

This global vegetation map was derived from multi-temporal NOAA/Global Vegetation Index (GVI) data collected over a three-year period from 1985 to 1987, and includes eight general vegetation types. The methodology was based on temporal analysis of monthly vegetation activity cycles as represented by the normalized vegetation index (NVI), together with geo- referenced elevation, rainfall and temperature data. The authors' (Drs. Shunji Murai and Yoshiaki Honda of the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo) broad objective was to provide a tool for global vegetation change monitoring, particularly as relates to agriculture.

The authors propose a new scheme of vegetation classification, which is related to Koppen's classification of major climates and consists of eight major vegetation categories: Tropical forest, Evergreen forest, Deciduous forest, Grassland, Semi-desert, Desert, Alpine desert and Tundra. They selected approximately 200 stable meteorological stations having precipitation and temperature data for use in pattern classification with NOAA NVI ((IR-R)/(IR+R)) data from the same locations, in order to categorize the satellite data as one of the eight vegetation types. A minimum distance method of classification was used.