The use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in sediment connectivity analysis: insights for considering land cover changes in Sediment flow Connectivity Index (SfCI)

This work presents an assessment of land cover changes in three different hydrographic basins (river Severn basin in UK, river Vernazza basin in northwestern Italy and Lama Camaggi basin in southern Italy) in relation to their respective sediment connectivity patterns, described by Sediment flow Connectivity Index (SfCI) in previous works (Zingaro et al., 2019; Zingaro et al., 2020; Zingaro et al., 2023). The main aim is to evaluate the use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to consider land cover changes in sediment connectivity analysis. The NDVI is computed from satellite multi-spectral images (Sentinel-2) in time period between the reference year of the land cover used in previous SfCI calculation and the last year (2023) in each of study area. The results show that (1) NDVI highlights the occurrence of land cover changes over short time periods in many areas of the basins, (2) the introduction of NDVI in SfCI modifies sediment mobility values also affecting the definition of sediment connectivity pattern.