Monitoring early-season agricultural drought using temporal Sentinel-1 SAR-based combined drought index

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment 2023-08, Vol.195 (8), p.925-925, Article 925
• Main Authors: Dilip, T., Kumari, Mamta, Murthy, C. S., Neelima, T. L., Chakraborty, Abhishek, Devi, M. Uma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Agricultural drought; Agricultural research; Anomalies; Arid regions; Arid zones; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Backscatter; Crops; Decision making; Drought; Drought conditions; Drought index; Drought monitoring; Droughts; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental monitoring; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental science; Horizontal polarization; Moisture effects; Moisture index; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Monsoon rainfall; Monsoons; Precipitation; Radar; Rain; Rainfall; SAR (radar); Seasons; Semi arid areas; Semiarid lands; Semiarid zones; Soil; Soil conditions; Soil moisture; Soil moisture measurements; Synthetic aperture radar; Vertical polarization
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-023-11524-y

Early-season agricultural drought is frequent over South Asian region due to delayed or deficient monsoon rainfall. These drought events often cause delay in sowing and can even result in crop failure. The present study focuses on monitoring early-season agricultural drought in a semi-arid region of India over 5-year period (2016–2020). It utilizes hydro-climatic and biophysical variables to develop a combined drought index (CDI), which integrates anomalies in soil moisture conditions, rainfall, and crop-sown area progression. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR)–based soil moisture index (SMI) represents in situ measured soil moisture with reasonable accuracy ( r =0.68). Based on the highest F1-score, SAR backscatter in VH (vertical transmit-horizontal receive) polarization with specific values for parameter threshold (−18.63 dB) and slope threshold (−0.072) is selected to determine the start of season (SoS) with a validation accuracy of 73.53%. The CDI approach is used to monitor early-season agricultural drought and identified drought conditions during June–July in 2019 and during July in 2018. Conversely, 2020 experienced consistently wet conditions, while 2016 and 2017 had near-normal conditions. Overall, the study highlights the use of SAR data for early-season agricultural drought monitoring, which is mainly governed by soil moisture–driven crop-sowing progression. The proposed methodology holds potential for effective monitoring, management, and decision-making in early-season agricultural drought scenarios.