APPLICATION OF LANDSAT-DERIVED NDVI IN MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT OF VEGETATION COVER CHANGES IN CENTRAL SERBIA

This paper evaluates the application of the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in the monitoring and assessment of temporal vegetation cover changes (from 2006 to 2014) in three municipalities of Central Serbia: Topola, Jagodina and Kursumlija. Additionally, special focus is placed on the analysis of the forest areas and the possible use of NDVI in the forest management sector. Results of the NDVI applied through Idrisi software identify all vegetation cover types and their typical values for presented case studies and observed periods. Obtained results for Serbian case studies indicate two major observations outlined for the investigated period. It was noticed that vegetation cover is experiencing a certain decrease, and that certain discrepancies exists between the NDVI and official forest area statistics for certain municipalities. The study outlines the positive outcomes of the applied remote sensing techniques, especially for southern Serbian municipalities where illegal logging activities are pronounced. Hence, this method proved very promising for countries performing national forest inventories, such as Serbia, providing local forest managers with several essential up-to-date information about vegetation cover changes on an annual basis.