Evaluation of vegetation density changes in Suburban Area: A case study of Istanbul Metropolitan Area

In this study, vegetation changes in 39 Istanbul districts of between 1984 and 2011 were analyzed using Landsat 5 TM satellite sensor images. Satellite sensor images were registered to each other in order to ensure the locational and geometric accuracy in multi-temporal analysis. In the next step, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) images were calculated from registered images. NDWI images were then subtracted from NDVI images in order to minimize the detractive effects of water bodies on NDVI. All of the 39 districts were subset from modified NDVI images for the dates 1984 and 2011. Mean values of NDVI for each district were calculated and these values were weighted with comparison of one districts mean NDVI value to others. In last step, vegetation change from 1984 to 2011 for each district was calculated using liner interpolation method and district scale vegetation change density map was created for whole Istanbul. Results showed that, methodology presented in this study can simply and effectively determine the spatial distribution of vegetation and vegetation density change in rapidly urbanized cities.