Modeling the relationship between elevation, aspect and spatial distribution of vegetation in the Darab Mountain, Iran using remote sensing data

The aim of this paper is to analyze topographic and aspect effects on vegetation indices in the Darab Mountain, Iran. Three commonly used vegetation indices, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and difference vegetation index (DVI), were computed from Landsat 8 ETM+ vegetation bands. Based on the results obtained by analyzing the vegetation indices, it was found that vegetation growth and vegetation indices increase with increasing elevation and aspect. The vegetation growth is highest between the elevations of 1500–3000 m, with the NDVI, EVI and DVI values being large. The best vegetation in this zone is distributed towards NW 300°.

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