Malawi Subnational NDVI: Dekadal Vegetation Indicators and Anomalies
Updated 4mo ago
2filesCSV
Available on 1 platform
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Description
Giving access to dekadal (10-day) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) indicators for Malawi, aggregated by sub-national administrative units using NASA MODIS collection 6.1 satellite data. Produced by the World Food Programme (WFP), the records include current vegetation health, historical averages, and percentage anomalies. The data is structured to support environmental monitoring and food security analysis at the district level.
Use Cases
Drought monitoring by identifying negative deviations in the NDVI anomaly percentage (viq)
Agricultural season tracking by comparing current 10-day NDVI (vim) against historical averages (vim_lta)
Regional environmental mapping using Pcode references to join vegetation data with other socio-economic indicators
Strengths
Derived from NASA MODIS collection 6.1 high-resolution satellite imagery
Includes n_pixels column to verify the data density of each aggregated unit
Provides pre-calculated long-term averages (vim_lta) for immediate baseline comparison
Limitations
Sub-national aggregation may obscure localized vegetation stress within a specific administrative unit
Satellite-derived NDVI can be affected by persistent cloud cover in tropical regions
Provenance
Source
NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) collection 6.1
Collection Method
Satellite sensor data processing and spatial aggregation by WFP
Freshness
Updated through March 2026.
Geography
Malawi
Users will need to join the Pcode references with WFP administrative boundary shapefiles for mapping; the data is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution license.