Distance-based vegetation indices computed by SAGA GIS: A comparison of the perpendicular and transformed soil adjusted approaches for the LANDSAT TM image

Abstract

Landsat-TM of 2001 covering Iceland (15.5°W-21°W, 64.5°N-67°N) was processed using SAGA GIS for testing distance-based Vegetation Indices (VIs): four approaches of Perpendicular Vegetation Index (PVI) and two approaches of Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index TSAVI. The PVI of vegetation from the soil background line indicated healthiness as a leaf area index (LAI). The results showed that the reflectance for vegetation has a linear relation with soil background line. Four PVI models and two TSAVI shown coefficients of determination with LAI. The dataset demonstrate variations in the calculated coefficients. The mode in the histograms of the PVI based on four different algorithms show the difference:-7.1,-8.36, 2.78 and 7.0. The dataset for the two approaches of TSAVI: first case ranges in 4.4.-80.6 with a bell-shape mode of a histogram (8.09 to 23.29) for the first algorithm and an irregular shape for the second algorithm with several modes starting from 0.11 to 0.2 and decreasing to 0.26. SAGA GIS permits the calculation of PVI and TSAVI by computed NDVI based on the intersection of vegetation and soil background. Masking the NIR and R, a linear regression of grids was performed using an equation embedded in SAGA GIS. The advantages of the distance-based PVI and TSAVI consists in the adjusted position of pixels on the soil brightness line which refines it comparing to the slope-based VIs. The paper demonstrates SAGA GIS application in agricultural studies.