Abstract

The Shaheed Benazir Abad District is situated at the center of Sindh Province, which is one of the hottest and driest part of Pakistan. In the past few decades, the extreme and moderate droughts had been reported in the district with peak value -2.4 recorded using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). In this study, satellite remote sensing and digital image processing techniques were used to monitor the drought conditions in the district. Multiple drought indices were calculated by using Thematic Mapper (TM) data of the Landsat satellite program, jointly managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), including Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and Temperature Vegetation Index (TVX). These indices provided the agricultural drought conditions for the duration of 1992-2011. The VCI maps indicated the high drought conditions in the plain land, away from the built-up areas, while the proximity of the built-up land is under a moderate drought. However, in cultivated lands, the agriculture drought condition is not obvious due to canal irrigated cultivation. A drought in year 2011, was more severe than in the year 2000. It is an indication of climate change impacts in the region.

Keyword(s)

Droughtremote sensingGISVegetation IndicesNDVIVCILST