 Land degradation and desertification have become increasingly important issues in recent years due to their potential impacts on human populations, agriculture, and biodiversity. Remote sensing has emerged as a promising tool for detecting these changes, but there is still much debate about which methods should be used and how they should be validated. Multitemporal analysis of vegetation index data has proven to be a powerful tool for detecting subtle changes in ecosystem health and variation and has been widely adopted in the field. However, further research is needed to validate the accuracy of these methods and to develop them for use in smaller areas and at lower intensities of degradation. This article was authored by Thomas P. Higginbottom and Elias I. Mannakis.