Evaluating the Invasion Strategic of Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) in Eastern Sudan Using Remotely Sensed Technique

In the Red Sea coastal area, the problems of desertification, land degradation and dust storm are still serious. Because, the invasive species Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) has a high capacity to fix sand dunes, mesquite trees were introduced into Sudan and planted in Khartoum and eastern Sudan. However, the tree was invaded both natural and managed habitats, including watercourses, floodplains, highways, degraded abandoned land and irrigated areas. The weed is more of a problem within central, northern and eastern Sudan. In this study a remote sensing approach for the mesquite tree control is proposed. To monitor mesquite water use efficiency the concept of a Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII), which is defined as the ratio of actual to foliar water content, have been applied and compared with the ground measurements of stomatal conductance (mmol. m^. s^), field spectral, volumetric soil water content. As results, on the base of the PALSAR L-band microwave polarimetric backscatter coefficient, the soil moisture and surface roughness could be estimated with a good accuracy for bare-soil surfaces.