Analyzing dynamics of degraded lands using NDVI time-series in a semi-arid region of India

The measure of degraded lands of a region provides for unfurling the natural asset, soil, for its suitability for crops. An attempt has been made to identify, map, and monitor the dynamics of degraded lands over three decades. The efficacy of remote sensing is employed to observe change in the form of reduction, increase, or shift in a particular category of degradation. An improvement in respect to extent of area has been observed for the year 2016 marking an area of 265.62 km2 to be left degraded which gradually decreased from 1210.94 km2 since 1995. However, the year 2006 was observed to be more degraded, making it mandatory to monitor degradation. The physico-chemical analysis of soil was performed to determine severity of degradation as well as variation in parameters of selected categories of land degradation. The temporal change of vegetal cover has been recorded by normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) which shows a positive co-relation with productivity by establishing a co-relation among different sensors. The extracted degraded lands had NDVI values extending between −0.97 and 0.4 obtained by masking the non-degraded lands. Analytical metrics generated to determine the fragmentation indicates more inclination of waterlogged (permanent) to transform to normal landforms for the year 2016. © 2021, Saudi Society for Geosciences.