Intro; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgments; Contents; Contributors; About the Editors; Chapter 1: Spatiotemporal Assessment of Vegetation Trends in the Post-Soviet Central Asia; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 Study Area; 1.3 Methods; 1.3.1 Satellite Data Processing; 1.3.2 Derivation of Seasonal Vegetation Metrics from NDVI and Climatic Data; 1.3.3 Seasonal Trend Analysis; 1.4 Results and discussion; 1.4.1 Observations; 1.4.2 Spatial Patterns of Vegetation, Precipitation, and Temperature Trends; 1.5 Conclusions; References

Chapter 2: Drought Variability and Land Degradation in Central Asia: Assessment Using Remote Sensing Data and Drought Indices2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Materials and Methods; 2.2.1 Location; 2.2.1.1 Climatic Parameters and Description.; Precipitation in Central Asia Between 1982 and 2015; 2.2.2 Classification of Targeted Area; 2.2.2.1 Datasets and Methods; 2.2.2.2 Climatic Variables; 2.2.2.3 A Drought Index: The Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI); 2.2.2.4 Vegetation Indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

2.2.2.5 Probalistic Methods to Predict and Monitor Further Status of Landscapes (Kriging)2.3 Results; 2.3.1 Long-Term Trends of SPIE Data (1950-2017) for Selected Areas; 2.3.1.1 Uzbekistan; 2.3.1.2 Kazakhstan; 2.3.1.3 Turkmenistan; 2.3.1.4 Tajikistan; 2.3.1.5 Kyrgyzstan; 2.3.2 Summary About Droughts for Central Asia; 2.3.3 Statistical Description of Annual Trend Analysis of Droughts and Their Residuals; 2.3.4 Resilience of Ecosystem and an Assessment of the Consequences of Current Factors for Vegetation Trends; 2.3.5 Ongoing Process and Early Drought Detection with the Kriging Method

2.4 ConclusionReferences; Chapter 3: NDVI-Based Monitoring Long-Term Vegetation Change Dynamics in the Drylands of Central Asia; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Study Sites; 3.2.1 Climatic Conditions in Central Asia; 3.2.2 Detailed Information for Selected Eco-regions and Their Land Use and Land Cover Change Data; 3.2.3 Kyzylorda Region-Kazakhstan; 3.2.4 Gorno-Badakhschon Autonomous Region-Tajikistan; 3.2.5 Navoi Region-Uzbekistan; 3.2.6 Jalalabad Region-Kyrgyzstan; 3.2.7 Lebap (Former Chordjou) Region-Turkmenistan; 3.3 Materials and Methods; 3.3.1 Vegetation Datasets; 3.3.1.1 GIMMS 3g

3.3.1.2 Sentinel-NDVI3.3.2 Trend Analysis; 3.3.3 Time Series Decomposition; 3.3.4 Seasonal Mann-Kendall Trend Test; 3.4 Results; 3.4.1 Monitoring NDVI Characteristics and Dynamics for Selected Arid and Humid Regions During 1982-2015 in Central Asia; 3.4.2 Gorno-Badakhschon Autonomous Region-Tajikistan; 3.4.3 Sentinel-2 NDVI Scenes for Efficiency Description of Crop and Shrublands as Examples for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; 3.4.4 Decomposition and Seasonal NDVI Accumulation in Selected Provinces of Central Asia; 3.4.5 Kyzylorda Region-Kazakhstan; 3.4.6 Navoi Region-Uzbekistan; 3.4.7 Gorno-Badakhschon Autonomous Region-Tajikistan