Assessment of agricultural drought by remote sensing technique

Abstract

Drought is commonly occurring natural hazard. It has vicious impact on agricultural production as well as on socioeconomic status of an area. Meteorological drought will induce with the deficit of rainfall and leads to agricultural drought as it prolongs. Rainfall is crucial parameter to assess meteorological drought and NDVI based indices can capture agricultural drought satisfactorily. The present study aims to assess meteorological and agricultural drought in the Ghataprabha river basin using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI). Monitoring of SPI and VCI will benefits to mitigate drought impacts with the proper water resources managements. Ghataprabha river basin is the sub basin of river Krishna, in India and is agriculturally dominated. Major portion of the basin is semiarid and rainfall is the major sources of water for agriculture. Average annual rainfall of the basin varies from 600 mm to 2000 mm. Gridded rainfall data was procured from the Indian Meteorological Department for the period of forty three years (1970-2013) and considered same as input for SPI. To calculate SPI with multiple time scale, two parameter gamma distribution was implemented. MODIS NDVI products from 2000-2013 was considered for calculation of VCI. Significant number of meteorological drought episodes were observed during the study period while severe agricultural drought was observed during 2001-2003 and in 2012. SPI and VCI were compared to quantify variation of VCI with respect to SPI. Good agreement between SPI and VCI was observed during drought and non-drought periods. Results indicates that eastern part of the basin was more prone to severe droughts as compare to other part of the basin. This study assistances to formulate drought mitigation strategies and to establish effective water resources policies in the study region. � SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.