Remote Sensing and Meteorological Indexes of Drought Using Open Short Time-Series Data in Doukkala Region, Morocco

Abstract

Over time, drought affects all regions of Morocco, especially in the arid climate region, which has negative consequences on agriculture, economic and environmental. The present study aims to describe the intensity of drought in Morocco and more specifically their impact on the distribution of vegetation. Spatial and temporal remote sensing data are used to monitor drought in the Doukkala region of Morocco, using a set of Landsat images, including Landsat 5(ETM), and Landsat7 (ETM+) captured during the period 1964-2014. This was determined based on remote sensing parameters: temperature condition index (TCI), vegetation condition index (VCI) and vegetation health index (VHI). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was determined for the years 1966, 1984, 1988, 2000 2006 and 2009, in order to identify the vegetation categories and quantify the vegetation density in the Doukkala region. The NDVI obtained was analyzed using the SPI (Normalized Precipitation Index) based on the rainfall data of the years 1966, 1984, 1988, 2000 2006 and 2009. The results obtained showed that the correlation between NDVI and SPI indicated negative values or less than 1. The calculation of VHI showed low values (VHI 40%), which mainly reflect favorable conditions for crop development (no drought). The results of this study can be used for monitoring and evaluation of the drought for sustainable management of the area.

Keywords

• drought monitoring
• meteorological indicators
• ndvi
• vci
• tci
• vhi
• doukkala-region