Agricultural Drought Severity Assessment using Remotely Sensed Data: A Review

Abstract

Drought is natural hazard which is caused due to shortage of rainfall. Among the natural hazards, drought is hard to find out because it grows gradually and have huge impact on nature, human habitat and economy. Many satellite based drought indices have so far been suggested for regional and national levels. Meteorological and satellite based indices are used to detect different types of drought, including meteorological, agricultural and hydrological drought. NOAA-AVHRR, MODIS data are used in worldwide for vegetation analysis and drought monitoring and drought assessment. The several meteorological variables (indicators) such as precipitation, temperature, humidity and evapotranspiration are required to calculate drought severity level. The nature of drought indices shows different climate dryness, precipitation deficit or correspond to delayed hydrological impacts such as lowered water level in reservoir, lake, river streams, soil moisture level and agriculture crop health. The long term historical records of satellite imagery and climatic data are essential to calculate drought severity level and to determine drought risk prone area. The agriculture sector is vulnerable to the drought. Now day’s satellite imagery has been used in agriculture drought assessment. The government agencies and district based municipal department can create drought mitigation plan based on drought monitoring model. This review paper has discussed the use of remotely sensed data for agriculture drought assessment.