The FAO Senior Locust Forecasting Officer, Keith Cressman, presented an initial evaluation of the dynamic greenness maps developed by the Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Land Use Planning / Environmetrics and Geomatics at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-le-Neuve, Belgium. The dynamic green vegetation map includes both the spatial and temporal information in one geotiff-formatted file suitable for analysis within the SWARMS GIS. The map shows the evolution of vegetation development for the previous 11 decades (i.e. eleven 10-day periods) for each 250m pixel, indicated in varying shades of red, orange and green. The product informs the user, in this case FAO’s Locust Forecasting Officer, of the spatial-temporal variations of the green vegetation and indirectly of the rainfall distribution through vegetation development. This allows the onset of green vegetation, and ephemeral vegetation (false starts), and the disappearance of vegetation at the end of its developmental cycle to be identified. It also indicates the location of evergreen vegetation that is of less importance to Desert Locust. The reporter presented his initial assessment of the new product, indicating some recession areas where vegetation changes are not detected.

1. Dynamic greenness maps:
An initial evaluation
Algerian Sahara
Mauritania Sahel
Pakistan summer breeding
Yemen Red Sea coast
Yemen interior
Keith Cressman
FAO Senior Locust Forecasting Officer
October 2008
Wednesday, 11 January 12

2. Algeria
non-seasonal sporadic rainfall in hyper-arid areas (11-20 July 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

3. Algeria
non-seasonal sporadic rainfall in hyper-arid areas (11-20 July 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

4. MODIS
Wednesday, 11 January 12

5. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

6. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

7. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

8. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

9. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

10. Landsat
UCL
Algerian Sahara
Wednesday, 11 January 12

11. Mauritania
seasonal rainfall N Sahel summer breeding areas (1-10 Sep 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

12. Mauritania
seasonal rainfall N Sahel summer breeding areas (1-10 Sep 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

13. UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

14. UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

15. MODIS
Wednesday, 11 January 12

16. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

17. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

18. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

19. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

20. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

21. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

22. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

23. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

24. MODIS
Wednesday, 11 January 12

25. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

26. Landsat
Wednesday, 11 January 12

27. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

28. Mauritania interior
Mauritania interior
Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

29. Pakistan
SW Asia monsoon rainfall in summer breeding areas (1-10 July 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

30. Pakistan
SW Asia monsoon rainfall in summer breeding areas (1-10 July 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

31. MODIS
Pakistan
India
nal
Ca
an
th
jas
Ra
Wednesday, 11 January 12

32. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

33. Landsat
Pakistan
India
nal
Ca
an
th
jas
Ra
Wednesday, 11 January 12

34. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

35. Yemen
rainfall on Red Sea coast in breeding areas (1-10 July 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

36. Yemen
rainfall on Red Sea coast in breeding areas (1-10 July 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

37. sandy rocky
Red Sea
coastal plains highlands
Wednesday, 11 January 12

38. MODIS
Wednesday, 11 January 12

39. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

40. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

41. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

42. MODIS
Wednesday, 11 January 12

43. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

44. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

45. Landsat
UCL
Yemen Red Sea coast
Wednesday, 11 January 12

46. Yemen
sporadic rainfall in summer breeding areas (21-30 June 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

47. Yemen
sporadic rainfall in summer breeding areas (21-30 June 2008)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

48. MODIS
Wednesday, 11 January 12

49. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

50. Landsat
Wednesday, 11 January 12

51. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

52. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

53. MODIS
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

54. Landsat
UCL
Wednesday, 11 January 12

55. Landsat
UCL
Yemen interior
Yemen interior
Wednesday, 11 January 12

56. Initial impressions of the UCL product
non-seasonal sporadic rainfall
in hyper-arid areas misses green vegetation
(Algerian Sahara)
seasonal rainfall
misses green vegetation in north
in N Sahel summer breeding areas
better in south
(Mauritania)
SW Asia monsoon rainfall
some vegetation changes detected
in summer breeding areas
other vegetation?
(Pakistan)
rainfall on Red Sea coast
difficult to detect annual vegetation
in breeding areas
better in cropping areas
(Yemen)
sporadic rainfall
more reliable in cropping areas
in summer breeding areas
than in desert
(Yemen)
Wednesday, 11 January 12

57. Phase 2
further refinement according to area and time of year
hyper-arid areas in the Sahara (all year)
northern Sahel, Indo-Pakistan,Yemen interior (summer)
Red Sea coast (all year)
Wednesday, 11 January 12