International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Beside climate effect on vegetation dynamics, understanding spatial and temporal vegetation response to human effect is also crucial for integrated basin management in the Mekong River Basin (MRB). In this study, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images and climate data from 1995 to 2004 were downloaded from a Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Study (GIMMS) and Climate Research Unit Time Series version 3.23 (CRU-TS 3.23). The normalized Human Influence Index (HII), was used as a proxy data for anthropogenic effect, was downloaded from Global Human Footprint Dataset (from 1995 to 2004). The residual NDVI trend analysis (RESTREND) and Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis and Mann–Whitney U test for paired test were applied for this study. The results showed that the human effect on cropland, in northeast Thailand and the Mekong Delta, mostly improved vegetation greenness. The forest ecosystem in Laos and Myanmar reflected land degradation, which was caused by high anthropogenic activities. Yet savanna and woody savanna, grassland, and mixed forest ecosystems showed more greening in low human activities areas. For a comparison of levels of human effect in different vegetation types, he results showed the evergreen forest ecosystem was the most sensitive with the level of human activities. In addition, the vegetation shown significant decreasing NDVI trend over 10 years (1995 to 2004) in high human activities areas, except for cropland. Human activities helped the cropland to grow.

Index Terms—Human activities, Mekong river basin, normalized human influence index, residual trend analysis, vegetation dynamics.

The authors are with the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Sino – Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China (e-mail: tawatchai_naudom@hotmail.com, moxg@igsnrr.ac.cn).

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Cite: Tawatchai Na-U-Dom and Xingguo Mo, "Detecting Spatial and Temporal Change of NDVI Dynamics in the Mekong River Basin: Relationship with Anthropogenic Effects," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 719-723, 2017.