Monitoring the biomass density using satellite imagery in order to revise the soil erosion classification map in the Beykoz district

Abstract

The aim of this study is to monitor the vegetation biomass in the Beykoz district of Istanbul, the metropolis of Turkey, in order to compare the soil erosion classification map of 1987. The study was carried out in 2005. The IKONOS data were used to determine the detailed spatial estimates of plant community biomass which could be beneficial for such multi-scale studies. The study region was analysed using IKONOS Pan-sharpened scene. Firstly, in order to estimate biophysical properties of vegetation communities, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) is generated from IKONOS image data by utilising the red and near-infrared spectral channels. It is observed that high reflectance values represent the highly vegetated areas and low reflectance values represent low vegetated areas or vegetation biomass. The obtained NDVI classified the image of 2005 objectively exposes the vegetation biomass in order to detect the changes from the soil erosion classification map of 1987 in the Beykoz district.