Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P.

, Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria

G. Delli, P. Sarfatti Istituto Agronomico per lOltremare, via A. Cocchi 4, 50131 Florence, Italy A. Cadi Institut Technique des Grandes Cultures, BP 16, El-Harrach, Alger, Algeria

Abstract
A qualitative approach to the use of historical series of low resolution NDVI data for an evaluation of relative length of growing period in northern Algeria is presented. The study was carried out through Principal Components Analysis and classification of long term average NDVI values. The interpretation of the resulting classes was based on the comparison between NDVI average temporal profiles of different classes and NDVI reference profiles for selected sites where detailed information about vegetation characteristics and land use was available. Results show the potential of the proposed approach for studies at regional or national level where lack of climatic data hinder the utilisation of quantitative methods for calculation of the length of growing period.

Keywords: NDVI, Algeria, growing period, agro-ecological zoning, cereals. Introduction

The use of long term series of vegetation indices derived from satellite imagery in vegetation monitoring and classification of land cover is a widespread technique (DeFries and Townshend, 1994; Maselli et al, 1998) and relationships between such indices and green biomass have been proved by many authors; also, relationships between Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and rainfall have been widely investigated (Davenport and Nicholson, 1993). Very often the operability of quantitative approaches is restricted by many environmental factors (soil, atmospheric conditions, etc.) and sensors characteristics (spatial and temporal resolution). In the framework of the Algerian- Italian cooperation project for durum wheat improvement a geographical database of natural resources was set up, as described in a previous paper (Delli et al, 2002a), aimed to classify the northern part of Algeria according to agro-ecological criteria. In this context, a key role is played by the concept of growing period, defined as the period of the year when both moisture and temperature conditions are suitable for crop production (FAO, 1996). The estimation of length of growing period is usually based on water balance models where temperature, rainfall and potential evapo-transpiration are compared. The implementation of such models require historical series of daily or dekadal1 climatic data including all parameters above mentioned.
1

dekad = 10 days

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

The lack of reliable data concerning rainfall distribution over the year and evapotranspiration led to investigate alternative methods to classify the area of interest according to significant relative differences in the length of growing period. For that reason, a qualitative approach to the use of long term average NDVI values was tested. Such approach integrate the implementation of well known image processing procedures such as the Standardized Principal Component Analysis and Clustering with the valorisation of existing information on natural resources of the study area. The present study is aimed to perform a qualitative evaluation of growing periods for the most important agricultural areas of northern Algeria in order to qualitatively evaluate the agricultural potential for durum wheat cropping. Interpretation of results, based on the analysis and comparison of NDVI profiles over time, allowed to classify the study area on the basis of the prevailing land use / land cover and, most important, to rank the different classes according to their relative length of growing period.

The study area

The study area is the northern part of Algeria, spreading from 212 W to 841 E in longitude and from 3705 N to 3421 N in latitude. The area covered (about 215000 km2) corresponds to that portion of the country interested by extensive agriculture; as a matter of fact, the southern part of the study area is represented by the transitional belt between steppe and desert where the dominant land use is grazing and where, locally, groundwater is available for irrigation and horticulture. From the landform point of view, three main zones can be distinguished moving southward from the coast: the coastal plains and hills, the Atlas mountains and the highlands. The wide depression of Chott Melrhir, reaching about -100 m a.s.l., is located in the south-eastern part of the study area. In the coastal area climate is typically Mediterranean, with mild winter and hot summer; most part of the rain, which is strongly dependent upon the relief, falls in the period December-April and ranges from 350 mm/y in the western part of the country to 600-800 mm/yr. in the eastern part. In the mountainous areas of the eastern regions rainfall can raise up to 12001400 mm/yr. On the high plateaux elevation is responsible for greater daily and yearly excursions in temperature: winters are cold while summers are hot and very dry. Rainfall is lower than in the coastal area and is in the range 200-400 mm/y, decreasing southward. In the recent past the whole area has experienced a significant decrease in rainfall, more evident in the western regions than in the eastern ones.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Materials and methods

Hardware and software NDVI data processing and interpretation was performed using an integrated environment composed by raster GIS software (Idrisi32), spreadsheets and customized processing procedures. Data

- NDVI historical data series

NDVI data were downloaded from the USGS web page http://edcintl.cr.usgs.gov. The data set consist of the GAC (Global Area Coverage) Mean NDVI value on dekadal basis (for a total of 36 raster images), calculated on the period 1982-1993. The spatial resolution is approximately 7.6 km. NDVI values are obtained from daily images, retaining the maximum NDVI value of each pixel location during the dekad. For each dekad, the average NDVI value is calculated on the period 1982-1993 at each pixel location. The resulting NDVI values are then scaled to 8 bit range in order to compress data and make it more suitable for analysis with personal computers. Images are in Hammer Aitoff Projection. A more detailed description of the methodology used to produce such data set can be found in USGS, 1997.

- Land Systems map

As ground truth for the interpretation of classification results, the main document was the Land Systems Map at scale 1:200.000 covering the regions of Mostaganem, Relizane, Tiaret and Tissemsilt (about 30000 Km2), with relevant reports and derived Land Suitability maps for winter wheat, barley and lentil (IAO ITGC, 1995). Land Systems Map was produced in the framework of the first phase of the durum wheat project in 1994, as result of Landsat TM images interpretation followed by an integrated natural resources survey, where data about natural resources were collected and soil profiles were described and sampled for subsequent analysis on about 120 sites widespread all over the four provinces. For each Land System, a monographic description in terms of geology, geomorphology, climate, soil, vegetation and land use/land cover was available. Land suitability maps were derived from the main map through data processing, following the FAO methodological framework for Land Evaluation (FAO, 1976 and FAO, 1983).

Other data
Many other information layers covering the whole study area were available, some of them (mean annual rainfall map, Soil map and Digital Elevation Model) particularly useful during the phase of interpretation of classes; for a complete list and description of these layers, see Delli et al, 2002.

Methodology
NDVI data processing was carried out in several steps, including geometric correction of original data set, Principal Components Analysis, unsupervised classification and interpretation of classes.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Geometric correction
Original NDVI data were geometrically corrected in order to fit such data with the other information layers available in the GIS (see Delli et al, 2002) in Lambert Conformal Conic projection. This was accomplished through collection of 21 ground control points on the basis of the shape of the coastline and of the internal salt depressions, detectable by means of their particularly low NDVI value. Geometric correction was then performed using a second order polynomial equation (total RMS: 0.78 input pixel units) and the nearest neighbourhood resampling algorithm, in order to avoid changes in NDVI values. Output images were then windowed according to boundaries of the study area and resampled, without any interpolation, to be represented at the 1x1 km resolution.

Standardized Principal Component Analysis

Principal Component Analysis using standardised components has proved to be an useful tools for analysis over time of spatial data (Eastman, 1992, Eastman and Fulk, 1993). With such technique, the transformation coefficients of input images are developed in such a way that each band has equal weight, regardless of its variability (Singh and Harrison, 1985). The main goal of such transformation was to compress the informational content of the 36 dekadal NDVI images into a smaller number of decorrelated images to be used as input for an automatic classification. In the application of the Standardised Principal Component Analysis, the first six components were retained and analysed. Analysis was performed on 8 bit geometrically corrected NDVI data set. Resulting images clearly revealed the presence, along the coastline, of pixels with NDVI values much lower than values of surrounding pixels southward, most likely because of the low spatial resolution of original images. In order to avoid undesired consequences on the subsequent classification steps, the original 36 NDVI images were masked, applying a threshold NDVI value to pixels near the coastline, and the Standardised Principal Component Analysis was repeated on the masked data set. The analysis of the percentage of variance explained by each components and of the graphs with loadings, i.e. the degree of correlation between the component and each of the original NDVI images, (table 1 and figures 1 and 2) allows a first, rough interpretation of the meaning of the various components. As shown in table 1, the first component explains more than 98 % of the total variance: the very high degree of correlation of this component (not included in figure 1, since it is above 0.98 throughout the whole year) with original NDVI images indicate that most part of variability in NDVI is related to the spatial distribution pattern of vegetation and, by consequence, to the total amount of rainfall. Components 2 and 3 are very interesting since they depict the different behaviour through the year of the different types of land cover. The interpretation of the meaning of such different behaviours was the main goal of the subsequent steps. Components from 4 to 6 account for less than 0.2 % of the total variance and gather noise of images , thus can be considered useless. Component Variance (%) Comp. 1 98.416 Comp. 2 0.878 Comp. 3 0.381 Comp. 4 0.097 Comp. 5 0.052 Comp. 6 0.032 Total 99.855 Table 1: % of variance of the first six Components

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Figure 1 Loadings by dekad for each Component

Figure 2: First, second and third Standardised Principal Component Images

Unsupervised Classification
In order to use the first three Principal Components as input for a classification algorithm, data were scaled from their original range into the 8 bit range. Data scaling was done through linear transformation, assigning values 1 and 255 to the minimum and maximum value, respectively,

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

of each Principal Component; value 0 was left as background value for pixels outside the study area. The new 8 bit set of Principal Components was then used as input in the ISOCLUST Idrisi module, which is a self-organizing unsupervised classifier based on a clustering technique (Ball and Hall, 1965 and Richards, 1986). With this algorithm, the user decides on the number of clusters to be generated. A set of N clusters is then located in band space using a multi-dimensional histogram peak technique of cluster analysis; pixels are assigned to their nearest cluster location. After all pixels have been assigned, a new mean location is computed. These two steps are iteratively repeated until no significant change in output is produced. The iterative process makes use of a full Maximum Likelihood procedure. In the classification of the three Principal Components, the study area was seeded with a total of 16 clusters, one of which was used for sea water.

Interpretation of clusters
The determination of the meaning, in terms of land cover types, of clusters obtained through the automatic classification procedure is a crucial phase: as a matter of fact, it allows to translate the pixels grouping based on the statistical analysis of NDVI values into mapping units according to vegetative cover characteristics. In northern Algeria land use and land cover types are strongly dependent upon water availability which, in turn, is the main factor in determining the length of growing period; as a consequence, such interpretation allows the classification of territory on an agro-climatic basis. In this study the interpretation phase was mainly based on a qualitative analysis of NDVI temporal profiles calculated for each cluster. For each cluster, average NDVI value was calculated for each dekad and plotted on a graph (figure 3). Shapes and relative positions of each profile describe the development of green biomass during the vegetative period, providing information about the phenological cycle of different vegetation formations or crops. Also, mean annual rainfall (see table 2) and prevailing soil types were extracted for characterizing each cluster, while the Digital Elevation Model was used to extract indirect information about morphology (see Delli et al. ,2002). Reference NDVI temporal profiles were then built using land cover information provided by the Land Systems map (IAO-ITGC, 1995). Land Systems characterized by homogeneous land use / land cover types were identified and, for each land cover type, from 4 to 11 locations were selected on the map as ground control points. Considering the goals of the study, particular attention was paid to the identification of cereals production zones. For that reason, five different classes were identified for cereals cropping, each class representative of different conditions with respect to pedo-climatic, morphological characteristics or agricultural practices. NDVI values were extracted for each point, averaged and plotted on a graph. Resulting profiles are shown in figure 4, while table 3 reports land cover types of each reference profile. Comparison of NDVI profiles of each cluster with reference profiles and cross-analysis with the other information sources allowed merging of most similar clusters, interpretation of resulting classes in terms of land use / land cover, and evaluation of their relative length of growing period. The total number of classes was reduced to 11 by merging four different couples of clusters. The criterion used in merging clusters was the similarity of relevant NDVI profiles as well as of the other available environmental variables.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Figure 3 Clusters obtained from unsupervised classification

Average rainfall Prevailing soil type (mm/yr) 1 161 Solontchaks et sols oliens d'ablation 2 188 Roche mere, sols calciques et sols oliens d'ablation 3 250 Sols calciques 4 292 Sols calciques et sols calcaires humifres 5 375 Sols calcaires et sols calciques 6 323 Sols calciques et sols calcaires humifres 7 430 Sols calcaires et sols alluviaux 8 427 Sols calcaires humifres et sols calcaires 9 457 Sols calcaires et sols calciques 10 469 Sols calcaires et sols calcaires humifres 11 621 Sols calcaires, sols alluviaux et sols insaturs 12 584 Sols calcaires, sols calcaires humifres et sols insaturs humifres 13 773 Sols insaturs et sols calcaires 14 834 Sols insaturs, sols calcaires et sols podzoliques 15 904 Sols insaturs, sols insaturs humifres et sols podzoliques Table 2 Mean annual rainfall and prevailing soil types for each cluster.

Cluster

Results
The image resulting from clusters merging is shown in figure 5. Average NDVI profiles (figure 6) and average rainfall for each final class were recalculated. Then, a description of each single class was done on the basis of: - data coming from the legend of the Land Systems Map for reference NDVI profiles; - average and minimum (dry years, return period 5 years) annual rainfall; - historical climatic data of ONM (Office Nationale de la Mtorologie) meteorological stations; - data coming from literature (in particular Baldy, 1974). Table 4 shows the final list of NDVI classes with relevant description, average annual rainfall and surface.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Figure 4 Reference NDVI profiles for different land use / land cover types

Land Cover type Cereals 1

Description Extensive cereal production area; durum wheat prevailing, followed by bread wheat and barley. Cereals 2 112, 118 Extensive cereal production area; bread wheat and barley prevailing. Cereals 3 78, 161, 163 Extensive cereal production area; durum wheat prevailing, vegetables in the most favourable locations. Cereals 4 77, 159 Extensive cereal production area; durum wheat and fallow Cereals 5 20, 22 Cereal production mountain areas (durum wheat and barley) and grazed fallow. Thicket 50, 62 Mediterranean shrubland Degraded thicket 56, 57 Low, open, degraded mediterranean shrubland Steppe 141, 142, 143 Steppe vegetation, rare extensive crops, pastures Degraded steppe 88, 93, 144, 145 Degraded steppe, barren land Woodland 49, 107 Shrubland and open, residual woodland Table 3 Reference land use / land cover types description

Land System 38, 39

Discussion
The description of NDVI classes was made taking into account the prevailing land use / land cover type: as a matter of fact, the low spatial resolution of GAC NDVI data did not allow to consider those classes as completely homogeneous: size and distribution patterns of agricultural areas and natural vegetation or pastures cannot be explained at this working scale. This is especially true in the northern part of the study area, where morphological and climatic variability are much higher than on the high plateaux, where large surfaces with homogeneous environmental conditions can be found. Anyway, cross-comparison with other information sources confirm that differences detected between classes can be considered significant at regional level and can be related to different environmental conditions.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Figure 5 Final NDVI classification

Figure 6 Average NDVI profiles for final classification

While Class 1 (Table 4) has no agricultural interest, representing mainly the south eastern salty depressions of Chott Melrhir and Chott El Hodna, Class 2 shows an average NDVI profile much below the reference profile for cereals grown in marginal areas (reference profile Cereals 4) and its utilisation as pastures should be considered extremely risky. Similar problems can be predicted for Class 3, which is presently exploited by extensive cereals crops and pastures. The amount and distribution of rainfall in these two classes allow successful crops only in most favourable years or where local conditions allow a greater availability of water; conversely, this land utilisation type seriously threaten soil by exposing it to severe erosion processes.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

Class

Description

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Salty depression (Chott Melrhir); mostly bare soil, only halophytic species in most favourable sites. Sparse shrub, degraded steppic formations, often result of overgrazing. Marginal areas for cereals production (wheat and barley) and pastures; total rainfall is very often below wheat requirements. Steppic vegetation, pastures and marginal agricultural land (mainly barley). Cereals production area (wheat and oat) characterised by short growing period (early drought). Main wheat production area; rainfall range: 400-500 mm/yr.

Average rainfall (mm/yr) 161 227 375 304 430 457 448 621 584 773 861

Surface (Km2) 12404 54442 22986 31207 17884 9454 30690 7284 7043 9580 9701

Open shrubland, thicket and open woodland; mostly hilly or mountainous zones. Wheat production area, growing period longer than class 6. Rainfall range: 500-750 mm/yr. 9 Similar to class 7 but with higher vegetative cover: woodland (mainly Pinus spp.), thicket; mostly mountainous zones. 10 Woodland with high vegetative cover on mountain areas; fruit and vegetable crops on coastal plains; rainfall range: 600-1000 mm/yr. 11 Woodland and forest. Good vegetative cover during the whole summer period; rainfall range: 600 1100 mm/yr. Table 4 Description of NDVI classes, with relevant average annual rainfall and surface.

Class 4 is mainly represented by steppic vegetation at various degrees of degradation. It is located prevailingly on mountainous areas and offers little agricultural interest. Classes 5, 6 and 8 hold the most important agricultural areas for wheat production of Algeria and are worthy of a more detailed analysis. As shown in figure 6, all those three classes exhibit NDVI profiles comparable to reference profiles for cereals crops, but with different peak positions, both on Y axis (NDVI value) and X axis (period of maximum vegetative cover). Indeed, the significant drop of NDVI values, which is typical of yellowing phase of winter cereals, starts for Class 5 about one month before than Classes 6 and 8, testifying for those areas the prevailing conditions of early drought and, as a consequence, a shorter growing period. Areas belonging to Class 5 are mainly located in the north-western part of the study area (regions of Relizane, Mascara, Ain Temouchent, Tlemcen, Sidi Bel Abbes), while Class 6 is mainly located in the eastern regions (Setif, Mila, Constantine, Oum El Bouaghi, Souk Ahras). Figure 7a and 7b shows the Ombrothermic Diagram for ONM meteorological stations of Mascara and Constantine, respectively. These diagrams confirm hypothesis made about relative length of growing period. NDVI temporal profiles for Class 6 and Class 8 show the same overall shape, but Class 8 has generally higher values throughout the year, indicating more favourable agro-climatic conditions and, consequently, higher yields. Effectively, Class 8 is mainly located north of Class 6 and is characterised by an average annual rainfall about 100 200 mm higher than Class 6. Areas belonging to such class should represent the most favourable areas for winter wheat cropping.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

b
Figure 7 Ombrothermic diagram for (a) Mascara (3536 N, 018 E, 474 m. a.s.l.) and for (b) Constantine (3617 N, 637 E, 694 m. a.s.l.) Classes 7 and 9 have very similar profile shapes, Class 9 having higher average NDVI values and, thus, a better vegetative cover. Both classes are prevailingly located on mountainous or steep hilly areas, covered by shrubs, open thicket and woodland; locally cereals crops are most likely present. Degradation of vegetative cover due to grazing and/or wood cutting is probably more intense on Class 7. Classes 10 and 11 represent the more humid areas, dominated by forest formations (mainly Pinus spp. and Cedrus spp.). Agricultural areas falling in these two classes are exploited with high value crops (tree crops and horticulture). The qualitative approach used in this study allowed a ranking of different agricultural areas according to their relative length of growing period and showed a great potential as an alternative approach to agro-ecological zoning in situations where climatic data required for a precise calculation of the length of growing period are not available. Studies at national level, where only a broad characterisation of areas is required, can successfully use low resolution (GAC) NDVI data. Nevertheless, the availability of long temporal sequences of LAC (Local Area Coverage) NDVI data, at 1 km resolution, could greatly improve the quality of results, through a strong reduction in the amount of mixed pixels and, therefore, the building up of better reference temporal profiles.

Journal of Agriculture and environment for international development, Vol. 96, o. 3/4, 2002 Delli G., Sarfatti P., Cadi A. :" Classification of historical series of NDVI: an application for northern Algeria"

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