(46x - 0.0027 
= 0.5129 
200 
(048 0.0115 
R! 26.5234 
200 
ind vegetation 
ndex and tree 
rithm for both 
very important; 
Ffect of the soil- 
v sizes to obtain 
and semi-arid 
rease with low- 
jence of soil 
the assessment 
r (Huete et al. 
between TRVI 
were generally 
(Figures 7 and 
+ ploti} 
plot 14 
0008x * 0.0354 
= 0,7155 
200 
e density and 
  
y=0.0057x- 0.0313 
R?= 0,559 
plot8 r 
y plot 3 e € Plot! 
E 
plot e e plot Li 
gU Pa 
rd 
"d 
pltlóe plots ~~ 
€^ ploty « plot L2 
A + 
A e 
plot? plot4 
  
  
i 10 200 
Ground data 
Figure 8. The relationship between juniper tree density and 
TRVI vegetation index 
4. CONCLUSION 
In this study, we identified and delineated pistachio and juniper 
trees in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran to facilitate forest 
inventories in this area. We introduced a new vegetation index 
(TRVI) for arid and semi-arid regions based on the spectrum of 
multispectral wavelengths. We applied this index for estimation 
of tree density in pistachio and Persian juniper forests. One 
limitation of this research is the method used to distinguish 
trees from other forms of vegetation. The relationships 
developed between number of pistachio or juniper trees and 
TRVI were all significant for green biomass. The new 
vegetation index, TRVI, was shown to be appropriate for arid 
and semi-arid areas. TRVI produces more consistent results and 
is as easy to use as NDVI. By simply inputting data for the 
other visible wavelengths, improved results for sparse forests in 
arid and semi-arid regions are produced. Additional work in this 
area using data collected from March to October is needed to 
fully evaluate TRVI for arid and semi-arid regions in different 
months. Arid and semi-arid vegetation has special adaptations 
to hydrological and thermal stresses, and hence special methods 
are required to extract the vegetation cover from satellite 
imagery, which may be key to extracting vegetation cover using 
hyper spectral wavelengths. 
Acknowledgement 
This study was carried out under the support of the 
Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S- 
9) of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan. 
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