International E-publication: Publish Projects, Dissertation, Theses, Books, Souvenir, Conference Proceeding with ISBN.  International E-Bulletin: Information/News regarding: Academics and Research

Monitoring of Drought using Satellite Data

    , ,

Author Affiliations

  • 1Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, INDIA
  • 2 Deptt. of Civil Engg, Remote Sensing and GIS division, NIT Warangal, Telangana, INDIA
  • 3 Deptt. of Civil Engg, Graphic Era University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, INDIA

Int. Res. J. Earth Sci., Volume 3, Issue (1), Pages 66-72, January,25 (2015)

Abstract

Droughts are considered to be one of the major natural hazards causing destructive impact on the environment as well as the economy of countries throughout the world. Drought being attributed to weather conditions cannot be monitored by weather data alone, strictly because these data are most likely to be ill-timed, infrequent and incomplete. Low rainfall has mainly caused droughts and subsequently reduction in agricultural production. Impacts of droughts constitute environmental destruction, economic damage human suffering and loss of lives. Droughts have been a recurring feature of the Indian climate therefore study of historical droughts may help in the delineation of major areas facing drought risk and thereby management plans can be formulated by the government authorities to cope with the disastrous effects of this hazard. In recent years, Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have played a remarkable role in assessment of various types of hazards either natural or man-made. This paper emphasize upon the use of RS and GIS in the field of drought risk evaluation. The study area taken is a part of the Jamnagar district of Gujrat between latitude 221946N to 224601N and longitude 702056E to 704734E. The study was conducted with satellite images of year 1977, 1990 and 1999. Data used for drought monitoring has been acquired from the following two sources, NDVI obtained from satellite sources and rainfall obtained from ground rainfall stations record. In this paper an attempt has been made to identify and extract drought risk areas encountering agricultural and meteorological drought by using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained from the LANDSAT images. The NDVI images generated from LANDSAT data were used to examine large scale drought patterns and their climatic impact on vegetation. NDVI values reflect the different geographical conditions quite well. The NDVI and rainfall was found to be highly correlated. It is therefore concluded that temporal variations of NDVI are convincingly associated with precipitation.

References

  1. Hagman G., Prevention Better than cure: Report on Human and Natural Disasters in the Third World, Swedish Red Cross, Stockholm, Sweden, (1984)
  2. Wilhite D.A., Drought: A Global Assessment, Hazardsand Disasters: A series of Definitive Major Works, Routledge Publishers, London, vol. 2.(2000)
  3. Kogan F.N., Global drought watch from space, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc.,78, 621–636.(1997)
  4. Jain V. and Sinha R., Geomorphological manifestation of the flood hazard, Geocarto International, press-b, (2003)
  5. Himanshu S.K., Garg N., Rautela S., Anuja K.M. and Tiwari M.,Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Determination of Geomorphological Parameters and Design Flood for a Himalyan River Basin, India, International Research Journal of Earth Sciences, 1(3), 11-15, (2013)
  6. Kumar S., Himanshu S. K. and Gupta K. K., Effect ofGlobal Warming on Mankind - A Review, International Res. J. of Environmental Sciences,1(4),56-59,(2012)
  7. Palmer W.C., Meteorological drought, Research Paper45, U.S. Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau, Washington, DC.(1965)
  8. Palmer W.C., Keeping track of crop moisture conditions, nationwide: The new crop moisture index, Weatherwise,21 (4), 156–161, (1968)
  9. McKee T. B., Doesken N. J.and Kleist J., The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scales, In: Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Applied Climatology, American Meteorological Society, Anaheim, CA, Boston, MA, 17–22 January, 179–184, (1993)
  10. Shafer B. A. and Dezman L.E., Development of surface water supply index (SWSI) to assess the severity ofdrought conditions in snow pack runoff areas, In: Proceedings of the 50thWestern Snow Conference, Colorado State University Press, Reno, NV/Fort Collins, CO, 164–175, (1982)
  11. Unganai L. S. and Kogan F.N., Drought monitoring and corn yield estimation in Southern Africa from AVHRR data, Remote Sens. Environ, 63, 219–232, (1998)
  12. Thenkabail P.S., Gamage M.S.D.N. and Smakhtin V.U., The Use of Remote Sensing data for drought assessment and monitoring in south west Asia, Colombo, Srilanka, International Water Management Institute: 1-23, (2004)
  13. Moulin S.A., Bondeau A. and Delecolle R., Combiningagricultural crop models and satellite observations: From field to regional scales, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 19, 1021-1036,(1998)
  14. Benedetti R. and Rossini P., On the use of NDVI profiles as a tool for agricultural statistics: The case study of wheat yield estimate and forecast in Emilia Romagna, Remote Sensing of Environment, 45, 311-326,(1993)
  15. Wang Z. and Wang P. Using MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index products for Monitoring Drought in the Southern Great Plains, USA, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 25 (1), 61-72,(2004)
  16. Tucker C.J., Dregne H.E. and Newcomb W.W., Expansion and contraction of the Sahara Desert from1980 to 1990, Science, 253, 299-301,(1991)
  17. Farrar T. J., Nicholson S. E. and Lare A. R., The influence of soil type on the relationships betweenNDVI, rainfall and soil moisture in semiarid Botswana: II.NDVI response to soil, Remote Sensing of Environment, 50, 121-133,(1994)