REMOTE SENSING APPROACH FOR MONITORING OF MACROFACTORS CLIME, SOIL AND VEGETATION (ME.D.A.L.US. PROTOCOL) IN THE DESERTIFICATION PROCESS IN SICILY

Remote sensing technology by analysis of multispectral images represents allows you to monitor climate, soil, and vegetation dynamics of a territory. By means spectral indices NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), MSAVI (Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index), NDMI (Normalized Difference Moisture Index), NBR (Normalized Burn Ratio), Spectral Albedo values (BRDF) of Liang, BSI (Bare Soil Index) LST (Earth's surface temperature) and the GIS technology, is possible accelerating the acquisition of spatial-environmental data. The authors started out a research about the use of the aforementioned spectral data, considering as study area Mussomeli Municipality (Caltanissetta Province, Sicily), to evaluate the sensitivity of the area to desertification, in a short period (year, season). In this study, the satellite data are considered in MEDALUS (Mediterranean Desertification and land use) protocol, which adopts data attributable to four Macrofactors: protection, soil, climate, and land management.