Analysis of the long-term agricultural drought onset, cessation, duration, frequency, severity and spatial extent using Vegetation Health Index (VHI) in Raya and its environs, Northern Ethiopia

Background Droughts cause serious effects on the agricultural and agro-pastoral sector due to its heavy dependence on rainfall. Several studies on agricultural drought monitoring have been conducted in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. However , these studies were carried out using the l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental systems research 2018-06, Vol.7 (1), p.1-18, Article 13
Main Authors: Gidey, Eskinder, Dikinya, Oagile, Sebego, Reuben, Segosebe, Eagilwe, Zenebe, Amanuel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural drought
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
LST
Monitoring/Environmental Analysis
NDVI
Rainfall
TCI
VCI
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Summary:Background Droughts cause serious effects on the agricultural and agro-pastoral sector due to its heavy dependence on rainfall. Several studies on agricultural drought monitoring have been conducted in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. However , these studies were carried out using the limited capacity of drought indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), and Deviation of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (DevNDVI) only. To overcome this challenge, the present study aims to analyze the long-term agricultural drought onset, cessation, duration, frequency, severity and its spatial extents based on remote sensing data using the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) 3-month time-scale in Raya and its surrounding area, Northern Ethiopia. Both the MOD11A2 Terra Land Surface Temperature (LST) and eMODIS NDVI at 250 by 250 m spatial resolution and hybrid TAMSAT monthly rainfall data were used. A simple linear regression model was also applied to examine how the agricultural drought responds to the rainfall variability. Results Extremely low mean NDVI value ranged from 0.23 to 0.27 was observed in the lowland area than mid and highlands. NDVI coverage during the main rainy season decreased by 3–4% in all districts of the study area, while LST shows a significant increase by 0.52–1.08 °C. VHI and rainfall value was significantly decreased during the main rainy season. Agricultural drought responded positively to seasonal rainfall (R 2  = 0.357 to R 2  = 0.651) at p  
ISSN:2193-2697
2193-2697
DOI:10.1186/s40068-018-0115-z