VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION IN THE MIDDLE MEDITERRANEAN AREA BY SATELLITE DATA

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index time series derived from NO AA satellite data relevant to the years 1986-1989 have been used to ev aluate their usefulness for vegetation mapping purposes. Given the rem ote sensing information about all the available dates in a period, it is possible to define areas of homogeneous time NDVI profile through u nsupervised classification procedures. In the discrimination process i t is assumed that dynamic features of the vegetation with an evolution period shorter than one month can be neglected. Three different appro aches are used: an unsupervised classification on Principal Components and on 6 and 12 months data. Maximum value composites of the NDVI pro files (in LAC format) in each area for each month of the four-year tim e frame have proved to be very useful to stress the various typologies of vegetation development and condition. The output vegetation map is characterized by regions of a similar vegetation composition and timi ng among the different dominant land covers present in the area observ ed and by areas with different photosynthetic potential and productivi ty.