Climate Change Research

Climate Change Research

Analyzing the dynamics of vegetation cover in Iran's Basins in relation to drought conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
jabar Rezaie 1
Masoud Jalali 2
Hossein Asakereh 3
Peyman Mahmoudi 4
1 PhD student, Department of Meteorology, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor of Climatology, Department of Meteorology, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
3 Professor of Climatology, Department of Meteorology, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
4 Associate Professor of Climatology, Department of Meteorology, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran
10.30488/ccr.2025.500184.1265
Abstract
To achieve the research objectives, two different databases with a common time period of 23 years (2000-2022) were used in this study: first, the 16-day composite MODIS NDVI (MOD13A3) products of the Terra satellite and second, the Standardized Precipitation-Evaporation-Transpiration Index (SPEI) database on a 12-month time scale. First, to obtain the type of drought, the SPEI index was classified into 7 thresholds. Then, according to the thresholds, a map of all 6 main watersheds of Iran was extracted, and to classify the vegetation type, 10 thresholds were extracted for the NDVI index, and the relevant maps of the watersheds were categorized into 5 vegetation types in the form of a map for each year. Then, to examine the relationship between the two SPEI and NDVI indices, Then, using the Pearson correlation test, the relationship between the two indices was evaluated in the average of the gridded data pixel by pixel, and the age slope estimator was used to estimate the rate of change. The results showed that the slope of the negative trend of the SPEI index, 264 months, is increasing in the range of most watersheds, so that the negative trend of this index is more severe in the southwestern regions (Persian Gulf basin and Oman Sea) and in the northern regions of the country (north of the central basin and the center of the Caspian Sea basin) and is statistically significant at a confidence level of 90%, so that the rate of decrease of its index reached -0.9 per decade. For the NDVI index, both positive trends (in the southern and southwestern regions) and negative trends (in the northern regions) prevail throughout Iran, and for basins with a significant trend, the slope of the change trend is (0.01 per decade).
Keywords
Content analysis
Scientometrics
Climate change
Iran
Web of Science database
Scientific mapping

Subjects

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