Use of Remote-Sensing-Based Global Products for Agricultural Drought Assessment in the Narmada Basin, India
Jeewanthi Sirisena (j.g.s.thotapitiyaarachchillage@utwente.nl),
Denie Augustijn,
Aftab Nazeer (jeewanthisri@gmail.com) and
Janaka Bamunawala
Additional contact information
Jeewanthi Sirisena: Department of Water Engineering and Management, University of Twente, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
Denie Augustijn: Department of Water Engineering and Management, University of Twente, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
Aftab Nazeer: Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
Janaka Bamunawala: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda 10400, Sri Lanka
Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-21
Abstract:
Droughts exert severe impacts on the environment, economy, and society. The south Asian region is vulnerable to droughts and the Indian sub-continent is one of the most vulnerable in the region to frequent drought disasters. This study assesses the agricultural droughts in the Narmada River Basin (NRB), India, where more than 50% of the area is utilized for agriculture, through freely available local and global remote-sensing-based data focusing on long-term rainfall trends (1989–2018) and recently weakened monsoons in 2017 and 2018. In this study, some of the widely used indices to characterize droughts (viz., Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), simplified Rainfall Index (RIs), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)), soil moisture content, and reservoir surface areas were used to assess the drought conditions in the Narmada River Basin over the study period. Our analysis shows that the NRB has experienced a decreasing trend in monsoon rainfall over the past three decades. The SPI captured most of the basin’s historical droughts. The weakened monsoons during 2017–2018 show that different parts of the NRB have experienced severe or moderate drought conditions. A clear difference does not show in the NDVI and in the soil moisture contents of the basin over three hydrological years (2015/16, 2016/17, and 2017/18), except for July to September 2017/18. The estimated water area depletion using the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) follows the actual water levels in three selected reservoirs in the basin, of which, two show a decline in the maximum surface area, likely due to the weakened monsoons in 2017 and 2018. This research indicates that the freely available data can be beneficial for local authorities to monitor and understand the drought conditions to support water resources management and planning for agricultural activities.
Keywords: droughts; global products; Narmada River Basin; weaken monsoon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13050-:d:939944
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