Bays and Saline Pond Classification Generated from the Nhecolândia Pantanal Aerial Photograph Vegetation Indexes Anny Keli Aparecida Alves Cândido & Antonio Conceição Paranhos Filho & Normandes Matos da Silva & Marcelo Ricardo Haupenthal & Gustavo Marques Amorim Received: 12 April 2017 /Accepted: 31 July 2017 /Published online: 26 August 2017 # Springer International Publishing AG 2017 Abstract The Pantanal is an extensive flooded plain, rich in biodiversity and considered a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site. It has great com- plexity and can be divided into regions due to its each distinct characteristic. Nhecolândia is a very peculiar region because it is made up of thousands of fresh- water and brackish ponds. The study objective was to evaluate the physical-chemical parameters of the Nhecolândia ponds and to analyze the vegetation indexes generated from UAV aerial photographs in order to identify what best distinguishes freshwater and brackish ponds and to differentiate study area features. The in-field and image data collection were performed on June 20, 2015. The aerial photographs were processed to obtain mosaic which served as a vegetation index basis. The indexes and wavelengths in the visible region analyses were performed for each of the area’ s ponds. It was observed that bays and salines have a differentiated spectral behavior. The excess green and normalized excess green vege- tation indexes presented results enough to separate freshwater from brackish ponds, plus to differentiate many study area features. Keywords Drone . Remotely piloted aircraft system—RPAS . Ponds . Small-format aerial photographs . Geoprocessing 1 Introduction The overall concern about natural resources conservation has been increasing in recent decades, especially in rela- tion to biomes such as the Pantanal, which is one of the largest wetlands in the world, also recognized as a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site. Alho (2011) reports that the Pantanal is a biome that provides important ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, fresh water supply, fishing, landscape maintenance, and biodiversity, that contributes to the quality of human life. The great flood pulse complexity and the wide fauna and flora diversity make this unique biome a numerous study target, all aimed at biodiversity conservation (Alho 2011; Alho and Sabino 2011; Pott et al. 2011). The land use and occupation analysis (Bergier 2013), chemical and physical soil quality (Cardoso et al. 2011), and the sub- region characterization (Mioto et al. 2012). Water Air Soil Pollut (2017) 228: 354 DOI 10.1007/s11270-017-3498-y A. K. A. A. Cândido : A. C. P. Filho : M. R. Haupenthal Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, GIS Laboratory for Environmental Enforcement, Unit 7A, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul 78720-100, Brazil A. K. A. A. Cândido (*) : N. M. da Silva Geography Mastering Program, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Sagrada Familia district, MT 270 Highway, km 6, Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso 78735-910, Brazil e-mail: anny.keli@hotmail.com G. M. Amorim Computer Modeling Laboratory, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Institute of Physics, Unit 7A, CEP 78720-100 Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil