Understanding of recent trends of the vegetation cover changes, and its relationship with the climate change will be helpful in more accurate prediction of the vegetation cover changes. The accurate prediction of vegetation cover is helpful in reduction of loss and damages to the economy of the country. Rainfall is one of the limiting factors of animal productivity and socio-economic development of Mongolia. In this study we analyzed temporal patterns of NDVI in relation to precipitation and/or air temperature in steppe zone of Mongolia. NDVI from the SPOT VEGETATION data, at a spatial resolution of 1 km and 10 day intervals, were used to investigate the vegetation variations in Mongolia during the period from 2003 to 2009. Then, GIS and remote sensing techniques were used to examine the relationship between precipitation/temperature and the NDVI in Mongolia, and the seasonal change of NDVI is taken as a tool for drought monitoring. The results indicated that the NDVI values changed in relation to different amount of precipitation and maximally responds to the variation of precipitation with a lag of about 10 days and 20 days during vegetation period.
Spatial and Temporal Patterns of NDVI Response to Precipitation and Temperature in Mongolian Steppe
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