The effect of change of vegetation cover and erosion patterns on albedo and texture of Landsat images in a semiarid environment

This study examines the relationship between changes in vegetation cover and surface erosion in a semiarid environment and changes in albedo and texture estimates made from Landsat Multispectral Scanner digital images. Albedo emerges as the single most important indicator of change in vegetation cover, though the addition of texture measures assists in the distinction between surface classes that exhibit similar albedo. Texture measures appear to provide further information on the condition of surfaces, whereas albedo change indicates relative increase or decrease in vegetation amount. Analysis of high-frequency components of albedo variation indicates that directional and size biases in vegetation and erosion patterns are important in identifying changes in the distribution of vegetation amount and that these biases further affect image texture related to the development of erosion patterns. As expected, physical explanations of the relationship between changes in erosion patterns and temporal changes in image texture are not readily forthcoming.