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Sahel Region Current Vegetation Growth Deviations for 2011 Season (as of 21 Nov 2011)

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Vegetation productivity monitoring procedures, developed by ITHACA, are based on extracting and elaborating phenological parameters from satellite derived NOVI datasets. The vegetation phenology concerns the study of annual green-up, or growth, and senescence cycles of plants. In the map, vegetation productivity in Sahel areas for the 2011 first growing season is described using the Seasonal Small Integra parameter extracted from MOOIS NOVI time-series (2000-2011). For cultivated areas, vegetation productivity reductions may be related to reductions in crop yield, indicating an increased crop failure risk. For pastoral areas, vegetation productivity reductions may indicate a decrease of the available resource (biomass) as well. In the map, areas where the Small Integral parameter of the considered vegetation season has a negative deviation from the average value (2000-2010) are shown using light orange to red colours. Pixel based results are proposed (0.05 degrees). lt should be noted that the considered growing season, for the different areas, can refer to different months in the year, according to the specific agro-climatical zoning. Moreover, the map shows the situation detected using NOVI MOOIS data available until October 31 2011. For areas where the considered vegetation season didn't yet end, the analysis supplies results about productivity expected according to the current observed vegetation status.

Note: Map in 4 pages