Spatiotemporal Mapping of Agricultural and Meteorological Drought in Wasit Province based on GIS and Remote Sensing Data

• Published in: Ecological Engineering & Environmental Technology Vol. 25; no. 6; pp. 115 - 122
• Main Authors: Said, Lubna W., Aziz, Nadia A., Hussein, Luay Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Polish Society of Ecological Engineering (PTIE) 2024
• Subjects: drought; gis; ndvi; remote sensing; spi
• ISSN: 2719-7050; 2719-7050
• DOI: 10.12912/27197050/186869

One of the most common natural hazards that can endanger life and property is drought, which can happen under a variety of weather and environmental circumstances. This study aims to monitor the agricultural and metrological drought in the Wasit Province using remote sensing data. Landsat 8 images were used to create the agriculture drought maps based on the NDVI for the years 2013, and 2023. Additionally, SPI-12 was used for the same years to evaluate the meteorological drought. The findings demonstrated that while SPI readings in 2023 were lower, the SPI-12 in 2013 indicated near-normal drought types. Two types of drought have been identified: moderate and slight. The result shows that, for the year 2013 the percentage of moderate drought is 31%, slight drought 64%, and no drought 3.9% from the total area. While, in 2023 the percentage of moderate drought is 47%, slight drought 49%, and no drought 3.2% from the total area. It is noticed that in 2023, the moderate drought class increased by about 16%. Government planners may find this results valuable when developing and managing drought consequences.