Drought Monitoring using Remote Sensing-Based Indices in the Southern Region of Iraq

Abstract

Drought considers a general risk that can have considerable effects on ecosystem stability and functioning, biodiversity, and the habitat of wildlife, particularly in arid regions. The study aims to use remote sensing dataset to evaluate the drought situation in the southern region of Iraq. Various indices were used, including the Land Surface Temperature (LST,) the Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), the Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for this purpose using Landsat data for the years 2014 and 2024. Also, the annual precipitation from climatic remote sensing data for the years 2014 and 2024 was used to access the hydrological drought.  Then, to produce the drought risk map, all these layers were normalizing and overlaid using ArcGIS 10.3 software. Finally, the study area was classified into three categories; high drought, low drought, and no drought according to the indices.  The result showed that, for the year 2014, the area of the class high drought, low drought, no drought is 10090 km², 8791 km², and 8486 km² respectively. This research study could help researchers work on drought monitoring, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Remote sensing-based indices can provide significant benefits in assessing the time stage and severity of the drought.