Geographia Polonica (2001) vol. 74, iss. 2

Assessment of relations between the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), frequency of forest fires, air temperature, sunshine, precipitation in Poland

Krzysztof Kożuchowski, Elwira Żmudzka

Geographia Polonica (2001) vol. 74, iss. 2, pp. 29-40 | Full text

Abstract

Climatic variation in the growing seasons of the 1990s was examined using 10-day values for the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) in five regions in Poland. The NDVI values were compared with climatic conditions, by calculating multiple correlation coefficients and regression equations for the 10-day means of NDVI on the one hand, and temperature, precipitation, and sunshine anomalies on the other, in the period between April and September. The frequency of appearance of forest fires was analysed for the same regions. The relationships between the frequency of occurrence of forest fires and NDVI values, air temperature, and precipitation were identified.

Keywords: climate variations, vegetation, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), forest fires

Krzysztof Kożuchowski [kkozuchowski1@wp.pl], Department of Environment Dynamics and Bioclimatology, University of Łódź, Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland
Elwira Żmudzka [e.zmudzka@uw.edu.pl], Department of Climatology University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland