Long term trend analysis of vegetation dynamics over Rajasthan using satellite derived enhanced vegetation index

Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) time series data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the years 2001 to 2021 were used to understand the vegetation dynamics in the Rajasthan during last 21 years. Savitzky–Golay filtering technique was used for reconstruction of high quality data. The non- parametric Mann-Kendall test was used to evaluate the EVI time series trend at 30m pixel resolution. The results showed that: (1) The EVI has great variation in spatial distribution, decreasing trend from the southern and south-eastern parts to the western parts of the state, (2) EVI increased in 93.3% pixels and decreased in 6.6% pixels, indicating that the vegetation is improving rather than degrading. The findings of this research provide a scientific understanding of how vegetation is changing over Rajasthan and could help in the implementation of sustainable ecosystem management.