README.tex.md

Awesome Vegetation Index

List of reference, applications of common Vegetation Indices for Multi-spectral, hyper-spectral and UAV images. (contribution are welcome)

Table of Contents

• Literature Reviews
• Multispectral Vegetation Index
  • Broadband Greenness and Cover
  • Other applications for Broadband images
• Hyperspectral Vegetation Index
• Vegetation Index for UAV images
• Community
  • Learning Materials
• Software
  • Commercial
  • Open

Literature Reviews for VI

1. Significant Remote Sensing Vegetation Indices: A Review of Developments and Applications (li et al. 2017)
2. Research on Vegetation Information Extraction from Visible UAV Remote Sensing Images (yuan et al. 2018)
3. Hyperspectral vegetation indices and their relationships with agricultural crop characteristics(Thenkabail et al.2000)
4. Evaluating Multispectral Images and Vegetation Indices for Precision Farming Applications from UAV Images (Candiago et al. 2015)

Multispectral Vegetation Index

Greenness and Cover

Broadband greenness measures the health of vegetation leaf area index (LAI) and canopy chlorophyll density (CCD) vegetation cover, LAI, biomass, growth, and vigor assessment. It is worthy noting that the selection of proper wavebands in hyperspectral data could partly compensate the limitations of some VI formulas.(Zhao et al.2007)

Name	Abbrev.	Formula	Atmospheric Effects Parameters	Soil Adjustment Parameters	Reference
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index	NDVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+R_{\mathrm{Red}}}$	Pigment, Canopy		paper)
The Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation Index	WDRVI	$\frac{a \times R_{N I R}-R_{N I R}}{a \times R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+R_{\mathrm{Red}}}$
Simple Ratio	SR	$\frac{\text { Near Infrared }}{\text { Red }}$
Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index	ARVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-\left(R_{\mathrm{Red}}-\gamma\left(R_{\mathrm{B} \mathrm{lue}}-R_{\mathrm{Hed}}\right)\right)}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+\left(R_{\mathrm{Red}}-\gamma\left(R_{\mathrm{Blue}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}\right)\right)}$	γ
soil and atmosphere resistant vegetation	SARVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-\left(R_{\mathrm{Red}}-\gamma\left(R_{\mathrm{Blue}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}\right)\right)}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+\left(R_{\mathrm{Red}}-\gamma\left(R_{\mathrm{Blue}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}\right)\right)+L}(1+L)$	γ	L
modified soil and atmosphere resistant vegetation	MSARVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+R_{\mathrm{Red}}+L^{\prime}}\left(1+L^{\prime}\right)$	γ
atmosphere effect resistant vegetation	IAVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-\left[R_{\mathrm{Red}}-\gamma^{\downarrow}\left(R_{\mathrm{Blue}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}\right)\right]}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+\left[R_{\mathrm{Red}}-\gamma^{\downarrow}\left(R_{\mathrm{Blue}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}\right)\right]}$	γ	L
Enhanced Vegetation Index	EVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+C_{1} R_{\mathrm{Red}}-C_{2} R_{\mathrm{Blue}}+L}(1+L)$	C1	L
Perpendicular Vegetation Index	PVI	$\frac{1}{\sqrt{M^{2}+1}}\left(R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-M \times R_{\mathrm{Red}}-I\right)$		M,I
Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index	SAVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+R_{\mathrm{Red}}+L}(1+L)$		L
Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index	TSAVI	$\frac{M\left(R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-M\right)\left(R_{\mathrm{Red}}-L\right)}{R_{\mathrm{Red}}+M \times R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-M \times L}$		M,L
Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index	MSAVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+R_{\mathrm{Red}}+L^{\prime}}\left(1+L^{\prime}\right)$		L'
Optimized Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index	OSAVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+R_{\mathrm{Red}}+\theta}$		θ
generalized soil-adjusted vegetation index	GESAVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-M \times R_{\mathrm{Red}}-L}{R_{\mathrm{Red}}+Z}$		L,M,Z
Global Environmental Monitoring Index	GEMI	$\eta(1-0.25 \eta)-\frac{R_{\mathrm{Red}}-0.125}{1-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}$		n
Chlorophyll Absorption Ratio Index	CARI	$\left(\frac{700 \mathrm{nm}}{670 \mathrm{nm}}\right) \frac{\sqrt{(a \cdot 670+670 \mathrm{nm}+b})}{\left(a^{2}+1\right)^{0.5}}$
Modified Chlorophyll Absorption Ratio Index	MCARI
Difference Vegetation Index	DVI	$R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}$
weighted Difference Vegetation Index	WDVI	$R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-M \times R_{\mathrm{Red}}$		L
Renormalized Difference Vegetation Index	RDVI	$\sqrt{N D V I \times D V I}$

Parameter: M: Slope of soil baseline I: Intercept of soil baseline L: Soil conditioning index L': A formula need to be added θ: SAIL constant 0.16 n: Atmospheric Regulation Factor(C =6、C =7．5) y: Atmospheric radiation correction coefficient

Other Applications for Broadband Images

Name	Abbrev.	Formula	Satellite Example	Sensitivity	Reference
Photochemical Reflectance Index	PRI	$\frac{R_{528} – R_{567}}{R_{528} + R_{567}}$	WorldView-2	Light Use
Structure Insensitive Pigment Index	SIPI	$\frac{R_{445} – R_{800}}{R_{670} – R_{800}}$	ALI	Light Use
Normalized Difference Nitrogen Index	NDNI	$\frac{log ( R_{1510} )^-1 -log ( R_{1680} )^-1}{log ( R_{1510} )^-1 +log ( R_{1680} )^-1}$	SCIAMACHY	Nitrogen
Plant Senescence Reflectance Index	PSRI	$\frac{678 \mathrm{nm}-500 \mathrm{nm}}{750 \mathrm{nm}}$	LandsatMSS	Dry or Senescent Carbon
Carotenoid Reflectance Index 1	CRI1	$[510]^{(-1)}-[550]^{(-1)}$	LandsatTM	Carotenoid
Anthocyanin Reflectance Index 1	ARI1,ARI2	$\frac{1}{550 \mathrm{nm}}-\frac{1}{700 \mathrm{nm}}$	LandsatMSS	Anthocyanin
Normalized Difference Water Index	NDWI	$\frac{R_{860} – R_{1240}}{R_{860} + R_{1240}}$	MIPAS	Water
Moisture Stress Index	MSI	$\frac{R_{1600}}{R_{820}}$	LandsatTM	Water
Normalized Difference Infrared Index	NDII	$\frac{850 n m-1650 n m}{850 n m+1650 n m}$	ALI	Water
The North Atlantic Oscillation	(NAO)		ALI	temperature and precipitation
Normalized Difference Infrared Index	NDII	$\frac{850 n m-1650 n m}{850 n m+1650 n m}$	ALI	Water

Hyperspectral Vegetation Index

The overall amount and quality of photosynthetic material in vegetation.

NAME	INDEX(series)	FORMULA (sample)	SENSITIVITY	Reference
Improved SAVI with self-adjustment factor L	MSAVI	$\frac {1}{2} \cdot [2 \cdot R_{800} + 1 – \sqrt{(2 \cdot R_{800} + 1)^2 – 8 \cdot (R_{800} – R_{670}}$	Canopy structure	Qi et al. (1994)
Modified Triangular Vegetation Index	MTVI1,MTVI2	$\cdot [1.2 \cdot (R_{800} – R_{550}) – 2.5 \cdot (R_{670} – R_{550})]$	Canopy structure	Haboudane et al. (2004)
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index	gNDVI,hNDVI, etc	$\frac{NIR – RED}{NIR + RED}$	Canopy structure	Rouse et al. (1974)
Optimized Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index	OSAVI	$\frac{(1 + 0.16) \cdot (R_{800} – R_{670})}{R_{800} + R_{670} + 0.16}$	Canopy structure	Rondeaux et al. (1996)
Renormalized Difference Vegetation Index	RDVI	$\frac{R_{800}-R_{670}} {\sqrt{R_{800}+R_{670}}}$	Canopy structure	Rougean and Breon (1995)
Simple Ratio Index	SR,SR705	$\frac{NIR}{RED}$	Canopy structure	Jordan (1969); Rouse et al. (1979)
Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index	SAVI,SAVI2	$\cdot \frac{R_{800}-R_{670}}{R_{800} + R_{670} + L} [Lin(0.1)]$	Canopy structure	Huete (1988)
Spectral Polygon Vegetation Index	SPVI	$\cdot [3.7 \cdot (R_{800}- R_{670}) – 1.2(R_{530} – R_{670})]$	Canopy structure	Vincini et al. (2006)
Thematic Mapper NDVI	tmNDVI	$\frac{\frac{1}{i_{900nm}}\sum_{i=760nm}^{900nm}R_{i}-\frac{1}{i_{690nm}}\sum_{i=630nm}^{690nm}R_{i}}{\frac{1}{i_{}900nm}\sum_{i=760nm}^{900nm} R_{i}+\frac{1}{i_{690nm}}\sum_{i=630nm}^{690nm} R_{i}}$	Canopy structure	Rouse et al. (1974)
Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index	TSAVI	$\cdot \frac{(R_{800} – aR_{670} – b)}{(R_{670} + aR_{850} – ab)}$	Canopy structure	Baret et al. (1989)
Anthocyanin Reflectance Index	ARI	$\frac{1}{R_{550}}-\frac{1}{R_{700}}$	Carotenoid content	Gitelson et al. (2002)
Pigment Specific Simple Ratio for Carotenoids	PSSRc	$\frac{R_{800}}{R_{500}}$	Carotenoid content	Blackburn (1998)
Structural Independent Pigment Index	SIPI	$\frac{R_{445} – R_{800}}{R_{670} – R_{800}}$	Carotenoid content	Penuelas and Filella (1998)
Carter Stress Index	CSI1,CSI2	$\frac{R_{695}}{R_{420}}$	Chlorophyll	Carter (1994)
Chlorophyll Absorption Integral	CAI,CRI,CRI2	$\frac{\left{ \intop_{550mm}^{760mm} R_{550}+[ i \cdot \frac{R_{760}-R_{550}}{i_{760}} ] \right}-\intop_{550mm}^{760mm} R_{i}}{\intop_{550mm}^{760mm} R_{550}+[ i \cdot \frac{R_{760}-R_{550}}{i_{760}} ]}$	Chlorophyll	Oppelt and Mauser (2003)
Gitelson & Merzlyak Index	GM1,GM2	$\frac{750}{550}$	Chlorophyll	Gitelson and Merzlyak (1997)
Leaf Chlorophyll Index	LCI,LIC1,LIC2,LIC3	$\frac{R_{850} – R_{710}}{R_{850} + R_{680}}$	Chlorophyll	Datt (1999)
M Locherer Chlorophyll	MLO	$\frac{R_{531}}{R_{645}}$	Chlorophyll	unpublished
Modified Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance Index	MCARI,MCARI1,MCARI2	$\cdot (R_{700} – R_{550})] \cdot (\frac{R_{700}}{R_{670}})$	Chlorophyll	Daughtry et al. (2000)
Normalized Phaeophytinization Index	NPQI	$\frac{R_{415} – R_{435}}{R_{415} + R_{435}}$	Chlorophyll	Barnes (1992)
Photochemical Reflectance Index	PRI	$\frac{R_{528} – R_{567}}{R_{528} + R_{567}}$	Chlorophyll	Gamon et al. (1992)
Red Edge Inflection Point	REIP1	$\frac{740}{700}) \cdot \frac{(R_{i}-R_{780})} {({R_{740}+R_{701})}}; R_{i} = \frac{R_{780}}{R_{670}}$	Chlorophyll	Guyot et al. (1988)
Red Edge Point	REP	$\cdot \frac{R_{rededge} – R_{700}}{R_{740} – R_{700}}; R_{rededge} = \frac{R_{670}+R_{780}} {2}$	Chlorophyll	Dawson and Curran (1998)
Transformed Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance Index	TCARI	$\cdot [(R_{700} – R_{670}) – 0.2 \cdot (R_{700} – R_{550})] \cdot (\frac{R_{700}}{R_{670}})$	Chlorophyll	Haboudane et al. (2002)
Triangular Vegetation Index	TVI	$\cdot [120 \cdot (R_{750} – R_{550}) – 200 \cdot (R_{670} – R_{550})]$	Chlorophyll	Broge and Leblanc (2000)
Vogelmann Index	VOG1,VOG2,VOG3	$\frac{R_{740} }{R_{720}}$	Chlorophyll	Vogelmann (1993)
Zarco-Tejada & Miller	ZTM	$\frac{R_{750}}{R_{710}}$	Chlorophyll	Zarco-Tejada et al. (2001)
Pigment Specific Simple Ratio for Chl a	PSSRa	$\frac{R_{800}}{R_{675}}$	Chlorophyll a	Blackburn (1998)
Pigment Specific Simple Ratio for Chl b	PSSRb	$\frac{R_{800}}{R_{650}}$	Chlorophyll b	Blackburn (1998)
Shortwave Infrared Green Vegetation Index	SWIRVI	$\cdot[(R_{2210} + R_{2090}) + 26.27 \cdot (R_{2208} – R_{2090}) – 0.57$	Dry Matter	Lobell et al. (2001)
Normalized Difference Lignin Index	NDLI	$\frac{log ( R_{1094} )^-1 -log ( R_{1205} )^-1}{log ( R_{1094} )^-1 +log ( R_{1205} )^-1}$	Dry Matter / Lignin	Serrano et al. (2002)
Normalized Difference Nitrogen Index	NDNI	$\frac{log ( R_{1510} )^-1 -log ( R_{1680} )^-1}{log ( R_{1510} )^-1 +log ( R_{1680} )^-1}$	Dry Matter / Nitrogen	Serrano et al. (2002)
Normalized Pigment Chlorophyll Index	NPCI	$\frac{R_{680} – R_{430}}{R_{680} + R_{430}}$	Dry Matter / Pigment	Penuelas et al. (1994)
Pigment Index	BGI,BRI	$\frac{R_{450}}{R_{550}}$	Dry Matter / Pigment	Zarco-Tejada et al. (2005)
Red-Green Pigment Index	RGI	$\frac{R_{690}}{R_{550}}$	Dry Matter / Pigment	Zarco-Tejada et al. (2005)
Simple Ratio Pigment Index	SRPI	$\frac{R_{430}}{R_{680}}$	Dry Matter / Pigment	Penuelas et al. (1995)
Desease Water Stress Index	DSWI,DWSI5	$\frac{R_{802} – R_{547}}{R_{1657}+R_{682}}$	Water Content	Galvão et al. (2005)
Leaf Water Vegetation Index	LWVI1,LWVI2	$\frac{R_{1094} – R_{983}}{R_{1094} + R_{983}}$	Water Content	Galvão et al. (2005)
Moisture Stress Index	MSI	$\frac{R_{1600}}{R_{820}}$	Water Content	Hunt et al. (1989)
Normalized Difference Water Index	NDWI	$\frac{R_{860} – R_{1240}}{R_{860} + R_{1240}}$	Water Content	Gao (1996)
Plant Water Index	PWI	$\frac{R_{970}}{R_{900}}$	Water Content	Penuelas et al. (1997)
Simple Ratio Water Index	SRWI	$\frac{R_{858}}{R_{1240}}$	Water Content	Zarco-Tejada et al. (2003)

Vegetation Index for UAV images

With specific camera, UAV images can be used to calculate all kind of hyperspectral and multi-band vegetation index, where RGB only images can be used to calculate following indices.

Name	Abbrev.	Formula	Atmospheric Effects Parameters	Soil Adjustment Parameters	Reference
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index	NDVI	$\frac{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}-R_{\mathrm{Red}}}{R_{\mathrm{NIR}}+R_{\mathrm{Red}}}$	Pigment, Canopy		paper)
Visible-band difference vegetation index	VDVI	$\frac{\left(2 * \rho_{\text {green }}-\rho_{\text {red }}-\rho_{\text {blue }}\right)}{\left(2 * \rho_{\text {green }}+\rho_{\text {red }}+\rho_{\text {blue }}\right)}$
Normalized green-blue difference index	NGBDI
Normalized green-red difference index	NGRDI
Red-green ratio index	RGRI
Blue Green ratio index	BGRI
Excess green	EXG
Excess red	EXR
excess green minus excess red	EXGR
color index of vegetation extraction	CIVE
Red green blue vegetation index	RGBVI

Community

Learning Materials

• Index Database - An Index-Data-Base (IDB) could be an useful tool to find indices for a required application, adapted to a selected sensor.
• LandscapeToolbox - The Vegetation/Greenness Indices part provides a detailed descriptions and applications of 9 common indices.

Software programs

There are currently a large number of software with Vegetation Index tools, and we have a brief summary of them,

Commercial

Name	Description	Customed Calculation	Pre definition Indices	Pre definition Satellite
ERDAS IMAGINE		√
ArcGIS	15 Image indices are computed from multiband images	√	15
ENVI	ENVI exposes 27 of these indices which were selected based upon their robustness, scientific basis, and applicability.	√	27
Idrisi	A full suite of mathematical and relational modeling tools for deriving new data layers as a function of existing layers.	√
Pix4Dfields	Dedicated software for agriculture	√

Open Source

Name	Description	Customed Calculation	Pre definition Indices	Pre definition Satellite
QGIS		√

Note

This list will be updated in time, and volunteer contributions are welcome. For questions or sharing, please feel free to contact us or make issues.