A Geo‐spatial study for analysing temporal responses of NDVI to rainfall

Climate change has become a serious concern worldwide owing to its multifaceted impact upon the physical as well as socio-economic environment (IPCC, 2013). Vulnerability to climate change is much higher in the developing countries like India, where the economy is mainly agro-based and productivity from the agricultural sector is dependent upon summer monsoon rainfall. Hence, assessing the quantitative relationship between vegetation patterns and climatic influence has become an increasingly important study conducted on regional and global scales. As vegetation cover plays a key role in conserving the natural environment, studying the spatio-temporal trend of vegetation is crucial in identifying changes in the natural environment. We analysed the spatial responses of SPOT-VGT NDVI to TRMM based rainfall during a sixteen year period (1998–2013) in the Bundelkhand region of Central India. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has proven to be a strong indicator of global vegetation productivity. Among climatic factors, rainfall robustly influences both spatial and temporal outline of NDVI. In this study, we used linear regression for analysing the statistical relationship among NDVI and rainfall and their trends. The study reveals a varying pattern of vegetation dynamics in response to rainfall over the area.