The Development of Vegetation Indices: a Short Overview

Abstract

Vegetation indices computed from remote sensing data became key components of agricultural monitoring and assessment. With the help of these indices, the difference of vegetational and other land covers can be contrasted and many useful and applicable data can be gathered ranging from vegetation health to growth dynamics among others. In recent decades, starting from the first Landsat satellite, a huge number of VIs were developed in order to be able to effectively monitor vegetation – the reason for the immense number is due to the fact that every sensor, topographic, geographic, vegetative and atmospheric feature is different, and more so are their combinations. This is the reason why there is no unified spectral band mathematical formula. The aim of this short overview is to provide the reader insight of the main vegetation indices (VIs) that have been used in scientific literature and their development over the last 40 years