Vegetation Change Detection in Amman, Jordan Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Vegetation cover assumes a pivotal task in shaping the environment and influencing climate change, with discernible repercussions for human populations. The utilization of GIS and Remote Sensing technologies has become widespread for the monitoring and assessment of vegetation cover dynamics. In this study, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a metric obtained from satellite data that serves as an indicator of shifts in vegetation, was utilized to examine and detect modifications in vegetation within the Amman city area, which is Jordan's capital. A series of MODIS datasets were employed to compute NDVI values, and subsequently used in the classification phase to generate detailed vegetation maps. To gain insights and quantify changes within the study area, the analysis employed image differencing and post-classification methodologies. The outcome of the change analysis suggests that, over the study period, significant changes in vegetation cover were largely absent, except for increased instances of moderate and sparse vegetation classes in specific regions and a corresponding decrease in vegetation in other areas. In sum, the study's results indicate that the overall vegetation cover in the examined region remained relatively stable. The results revealed a stable vegetation cover, with some areas experiencing modest increases in moderate and sparse vegetation, while others exhibited declines in vegetation cover.