Ecosystem health assessment by using remote sensing derived data: A case study of terrestrial region along the coast in Zhejiang province

10-day maximum composite SPOT/VEGETATION NDVI from 1998 to 2007 were collected to assess terrestrial region ecosystem health along the coast in Zhejiang province. Vigor, organization and resilience were the main three characterization of ecosystem health, in this paper the average annual NDVI represented vigor, vegetation percentage and centriod movement represented organization, SLOPE represented resilience. Then integrated health value was calculated by using multiplying of those indicators. Then integrated ecosystem health results were acquired. The results were followings: (1) overall vigor remained steady in recent 10 years, but spatial heterogeneity existed; (2) the vegetation percentage decreased and DNVI centroid moved to inland obviously; (3) the lower SLOPE distributed around cities and coastline, vegetation resilience decreased; (4) the best status of ecosystem health were in Fenghua, Pingyang, the worst were in Shaoxing, Ningbo and Cixi.