Use of Proba-V Images in Southern Africa for Dynamic of Desertification Indicators Rogers Hansine Geography Department Eduardo Mondlane University Maputo, Mozambique rogers.hansine@yahoo.com Alzira Ramos CERENA/Instituto Superior Técnico University of Lisbon Lisboa, Portugal alzira.ramos@tecnico.ulisboa.pt Maria João Pereira CERENA/Instituto Superior Técnico University of Lisbon Lisboa, Portugal maria.pereira@tecnico.ulisboa.pt Amílcar Soares CERENA/Instituto Superior Técnico University of Lisbon Lisboa, Portugal asoares@ist.utl.pt Abstract—In southern Africa, land degradation and desertification affect the territory to a considerable extent. Given the lack of economic resources to reverse the problem in many countries within the region, prevention mechanisms can be key to address further land degradation and desertification. The use of Earth Observation Data for analyzing land degradation and desertification dynamics, in southern Africa is widely and consistently used. Under the Desert watch Extension project a consistent methodology to attain an Indicator of Susceptibility to Desertification was developed. In this paper we aim to implement the Indicator for Susceptibility to Desertification through Desert Watch Extension methodology, but employing new Earth Observation Data from the satellite mission of the Project On Board Vegetation- Proba-V. Our preliminary results validated the use of this new Earth Observation data set for the analysis of the spatial variability as well as temporal dynamics of drought, one of the key driving factors of land degradation and desertification in the region. Keywords- the Southern Africa; desertification indicators; Proba-V; drought. I. INTRODUCTION This study aims to analyse the new dynamics of desertification and land degradation indicators in Southern Africa. The study area comprises Southern Mozambique, Southern Zimbabwe and the Northern part of South Africa. The research goal is to produce an Indicator for Susceptibility of Desertification (ISD) through remote sensing data, namely the Proba-V (Project On Board Autonomous Vegetation) 1 . The Proba-V is satellite mission from European Spatial Agency (ESA) and Centre National d' Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and is providing new Earth Observation Data since June 2013. This product has the same performance as the Satellite Pour l’ Observation de la Terre – Vegetation (SPOT-VGT) 2 . Hence, it allows us to have series of data from 1998 to current days. 1 Proba Vegetation: small satellite for global vegetation http://proba- v.vgt.vito.be/ 2 Spot-Vegetation programme http://www.spot-vegetation.com/ The semi-arid areas cover almost 16% of African continent´s surface and represent about 5.1 million km 2 [1]. Dryland degradation affects much of Africa, in general, and Southern Africa, in particular [2]. There are several studies that sought to discriminate between climate and human- induced dryland degradation in Southern Africa [3][4][5]. Among various factors, the cyclical occurrence of droughts at local level, as well as deforestation caused by farming and alike activities can increase the risk of desertification particularly in the semi-arid areas in Southern Africa [1]. The indicators about the susceptibility to desertification, particularly in the semi-arid areas in Southern Africa region, still requires further study. To what extent, through the use of the Proba-V-new remote sensing data - a steady and effective Indicator for Susceptibility of Desertification – ISD, can be obtained for Southern Africa? Our research goal is to employ the Proba-V satellite imagery and the DW-E methodology for obtaining an affective Indicator for Susceptibility to Desertification. We consider that using this new data could represent a crucial step for consolidating the understanding of the dynamics of desertification in Southern Africa. II. METHODOLOGY In Southern Africa region, the driest months are July and August, whereas the rainiest months are December and January. Fundamentally, in the study area, two main seasons can be identified. One is cold and dry and another is hot and wet with about the same duration length of 6 months each. However, a decrease in precipitation can increase the likelihood of severe droughts. In the preliminary stages of this study, in order to calibrate the ISD using the new Proba-V images, the correlation between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), extracted from Landsat (Thematic Mapper 3 , Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus 4 and Operational Land 3 Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/TM 4 Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (TM) https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/LETMP 36 Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-61208-410-7 BIONATURE 2015 : The Sixth International Conference on Bioenvironment, Biodiversity and Renewable Energies