US-IALE 2018

AUTHORS: Geoffrey M. Henebry*, Monika A. Tomaszewska, Kamilya Kelgenbaeva – South Dakota State University

ABSTRACT: Mountain pastures form the basis of herder livelihoods in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere in the mountains of Central Asia. We explore here how the seasonality of vegetation, as observed through remote sensing, changes with elevation and influenced by slope, aspect, latitude, and location. We use 16 years of moderate resolution (Landsat: 30 m) image time series combined with land surface temperature data at coarser resolution (MODIS: 1 km) to describe the temporal progression of vegetation. We evaluate the variation across four districts in two provinces of the Kyrgyz Republic--Alay, At-Bashy, Chong Alay, and Naryn. We classify the temporal reliability of pasture resources to identify critical areas for resource management. This approach is applicable to other mountain environments where the seasonal variation of temperature limits pasture growth.