Monitoring land cover and land use using NOAA-AVHRR data in the Husteca Potosina, Mexico Article uri icon

abstract

  • The Huasteca Potosina region, Mexico, is of great economic importance at local, state and national level. In recent decades it has experienced strong ecological transformations by human activity. Currently the natural vegetation and the agricultural areas are more fragile with respect to hydrometeorological phenomena and plagues. The natural vegetation and land use cover show yearly and seasonal changes that can be measured by means of remote sensing techniques, in particular those changes occurring during the growing period (rainy season). The objective of this study was to identify the land-cover and land-use changes and to monitor density changes and crop health, using vegetation indices derived from the visible and infrared bands of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite. This study is part of an ample interdisciplinary investigation, the ultimate goal of which is to identify the vulnerability of natural vegetation to hydrometeorological phenomena and plagues by means of remote sensing, GIS, multivariate analysis and a climatic model.

publication date

  • 2008-01-01