Responses of Adaptive Capacity to Agricultural Drought Vulnerability and Its Impact, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

Abstract

vulnerable to drought. The effect of climate change on water resources directly relates to agricultural drought vulnerability. The study aims to assess the response of adaptive capacity to agricultural drought vulnerability and its impact. This study integrated agricultural drought exposure and sensitivity without and with adaptive capacity in the framework of climate change adaptation for assessing the response of adaptive capacity (groundwater use in agriculture) on agricultural drought vulnerability and drought impact in 3m7 (May to July), 3m10 (August to October, and 6m10 (May to October). As a result, based on severity level change detection between agricultural drought vulnerability classification without and with groundwater use, areas of decreasing severity by combining moderate, high, and very high severity levels after applying groundwater use in agriculture in 3m7, 3m10, and 6m10 cover an area of 4,408.50 sq.km, 4,776.09 sq.km, and 7,149.33 sq.km, respectively. In addition, based on the changed area of agricultural drought vulnerability impact on economic crops without and with groundwater use in agriculture, the affected areas, by combination of moderate, high, and very high severity levels for rice, sugarcane and corn, decreased in 3 periods. Still, the areas affected by a combination of moderate, high, and very high severity levels for cassava increased in three periods. These findings suggest a significant role for groundwater use in agriculture in mitigating the impact of drought. Therefore, a feasibility study on the use of groundwater in agriculture is recommended.