Scale Dependence of NDVI and Its Relationship to Mountainous Terrain

Geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques may be used to test hypotheses regarding the structure and scale dependence of vegetation and environmental processes. Examination of scales of variation of forest productivity, for example, is an area where remotely sensed data can further our understanding of the scale dependence of vegetation, environment linkages. By assessing vegetation through remote sensing and spatial and statistical analyses, the analysis of scale dependence and landscape structure may be quantified. Specifically, this chapter examines relationships between the middle-infrared corrected version of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and mountain terrain in Glacier National Park. By varying the scale of empirical models, the authors seek to explain variation in NDVI relationships resulting from local to regional variation in environmental gradients. It is important to know the scale dependence of processes that determine landscape structure and how the degree and nature of the relationship between pattern and process change with variations in the scale of measurement.