Applying the NDVI Technique to Determine the Natural Grazing in the Hauran Valley Area, Western Iraq

Natural grazing is characterized by large area distribution and requires more effective and efficient tools. Changes in vegetation from green to yellow colors can be monitored through vegetation indices. This study aims to monitor changes in vegetation cover in Hauran Valley for three time periods, relying on data from the Landsat 8 satellite for the years 2014, and 2019 and the Landsat 9 satellite for the year 2023. The use of remote sensing techniques is represented by the Vegetation Cover Index and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) with a threshold of 0.1 to determine and calculate the area of vegetation cover for each season. The percentage of change is calculated through the use of comparison techniques of the tools developed for ArcGIS to detect change in the vegetation index. Maps revealing changes showed a deterioration in agricultural lands for the year 2023 compared to agricultural lands for the years 2014 and 2019. Spatial analyses of Landsat satellite data indicate that NDVI can provide a sensitive tool to identify and monitor spatial and temporal changes in the vegetation status of diverse grazing lands.