The Development of Agricultural Drought Monitoring and Drought Limit Water Level Assessments for Plateau Lakes in Central Yunnan Based on MODIS Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Qilu Lake

Shixiang Gu, Kai Gao, Yanchen Zhou (), Jinming Chen, Jing Chen and Jie Ou
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Shixiang Gu: Yunnan Water Resources and Hydropower Survey, Design and Research Institute, Kunming 650021, China
Kai Gao: College of Water Conservancy, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China
Yanchen Zhou: Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute of Changjiang Water Resources Commission, Wuhan 430010, China
Jinming Chen: College of Water Conservancy, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China
Jing Chen: College of Water Conservancy, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China
Jie Ou: College of Water Conservancy, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: This study focuses on Qilu Lake to study how to mitigate the impacts of seasonal droughts and provide technical support for drought resistance decision-making in low-latitude plateau lake basins. Using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), and the Temperature Condition Index (TCI) as bases, in this study, the applicability of the vegetation health index (VHI) within the basin is investigated, and the optimal weight distribution between the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and the Temperature Condition Index (TCI) in the VHI is determined. The VHI is then applied to analyze the correlation between drought frequency and severity within the basin. The results indicate that the method is most effective in assessing agricultural drought in the Qilu Lake Basin when the VCI and TCI are weighted at a 4:6 ratio, optimizing the VHI’s evaluative performance. The drought limit water levels of lakes are further divided into short- and long-term drought limit water levels. The short-term drought limit water level is divided into the drought warning water level and the drought emergency water level. The drought warning water level (corresponding to moderate drought conditions, with a frequency of P = 75%) ranges from 1794.53 m to 1795.11 m, while the drought emergency water level (corresponding to extreme drought conditions, with a frequency of P = 95%) ranges from 1793.94 m to 1794.31 m. These levels are set to meet the emergency water demand during droughts in the basin. The long-term drought limit water levels are calculated by accumulating the water deficits of various sectors within the watershed under different agricultural drought conditions, based on the short-term drought limit water levels. By setting the drought limit water level using this method, as well as considering the original water regulation capacity of the lake resources, when the watershed experiences drought, the scheduling method based on this drought limit water level can better alleviate the water supply pressure on various sectors in the local area.

Keywords: vegetation health index (VHI); agricultural drought monitoring; drought limit water level; water resource allocation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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