Drought Assessment across Erbil Using Satellite Products

Mohammed Mustafa Alee, Ali Danandeh Mehr, Ozgun Akdegirmen and Vahid Nourani ()
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Mohammed Mustafa Alee: Department of Information Technology, Choman Technical Institute, Erbil Polytechnic University, Erbil 44001, Iraq
Ali Danandeh Mehr: Department of Civil Engineering, Antalya Bilim University, Antalya 07190, Turkey
Ozgun Akdegirmen: Department of Civil Engineering, Antalya Bilim University, Antalya 07190, Turkey
Vahid Nourani: Centre of Excellence in Hydroinformatics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 51666, Iran

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: In this article, meteorological and agricultural droughts across the Erbil province, Iraq, were assessed using remote sensing data and satellite products. To this end, the long-term (2000–2022) Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at 1- and 3-month accumulation periods (SPEI-1 and SPEI-3) as well as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) across Erbil were utilized. While the former was retrieved from the global SPEI data repository, the latter was derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products. The spatiotemporal variations in the SPEI indices indicated that two to nine extreme drought events occurred in the province with an increasing northward pattern. An increasing trend in the long-term NDVI series was also detected, having more diversity in vegetation coverage in the northern part of the province. The relationship between the SPEI and MODIS-NDVI was found to be positive but insignificant. Thus, we concluded that short-term meteorological droughts were not the only reason for the agricultural droughts in Erbil. Furthermore, the climate characteristics related to the cumulative water balance over a previous season is not an important trigger for the spatial variation in vegetation coverage across the province.

Keywords: drought; SPEI; NDVI; Erbil; MODIS; Iraq (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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