Geographical analysis
Department of Geography & GIS
Department of Geography & GIS
Geographical analysis
DOI: 10.53989/bu.ga.v14i2.25.ai shwarya
Year: 2025, Volume: 14, Issue: 2, Pages: 62-69
Original Article
N Aishwarya1, P Surendra2*, Suzan Karmok3, T Ravi Kiran3
1M.Sc Student, Department of Geography, Bangalore University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
2Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Bangalore University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
3Research Scholar, Department of Geography, Bangalore University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
*Corresponding Author
Email: [email protected]
Received Date:12 September 2025, Accepted Date:20 November 2025
The Western Ghats, one of the world's most significant biodiversity hotspots, play a vital role in maintaining ecological balance, carbon sequestration, hydrological regulation, and biodiversity conservation. However, increasing anthropogenic activities and climate variability have significantly influenced vegetation dynamics across the region, necessitating continuous monitoring of vegetation health. The present study evaluates the spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation in the Karnataka segment of the Western Ghats during the period 2004–2024 using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data integrated with Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. Three widely adopted vegetation indicators, namely Leaf Area Index (LAI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Vegetation Health Index (VHI), were employed to assess vegetation canopy density, photosynthetic activity, biomass characteristics, and vegetation health. The analysis revealed that the Western Ghats maintained predominantly healthy vegetation conditions throughout the study period despite temporal fluctuations associated with climatic variability and anthropogenic disturbances. LAI values indicated moderate to high vegetation canopy density, with temporary declines during stress years followed by rapid recovery under favourable climatic conditions. Similarly, NDVI values demonstrated consistently high vegetation greenness and productivity, while VHI analysis confirmed that the region experienced generally low drought stress and sustained vegetation resilience over the two decades. Higher vegetation health was consistently observed within dense evergreen forest regions, whereas comparatively lower values occurred in disturbed and anthropogenically influenced landscapes. The integration of LAI, NDVI, and VHI provided a comprehensive assessment of vegetation dynamics and highlighted the ecological resilience of the Western Ghats. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of remote sensing and GIS techniques for long-term vegetation monitoring and provide valuable scientific information to support sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation, and environmental planning in this ecologically significant region.
Keywords: Leaf Area Index (LAI); Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI); Vegetation Health Index (VHI); Remote Sensing; Geographic Information System (GIS); Western Ghats
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© 2025 Aishwarya, <I>et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Published By Bangalore University, Bengaluru, Karnataka
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