Tropentag, October 6 - 8, 2009 in Hamburg "Biophysical and Socio-economic Frame Conditions for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources"

Drought Monitoring by Using Remote Sensing Technique in Iran

Shirvan Islamic Azad University, Agriculture, Iran

Abstract

Iran is a country located in the arid and semi arid regions. In these regions natural disasters cause a lot of social and economical problems. Drought is such a disaster. Although this event takes place all over the world, it's intensity and force has nowadays increased. This phenomenon can be related to climate change. Drought is a complex natural event. A universally accepted definition does not exist. It is acknowledged that the major causes of drought are a lower than average rainfall. Due to the wide impacts of drought conditions on Iran in recent years, it looks necessary to apply monitoring techniques to measure these impacts on the affected regions. Also, this can help to come up with an optimum risk management during severe drought conditions. Recent research around the world suggests that the best method for this aim is the application of remote sensing techniques. In this paper these methods are explained, in particular reflective remote sensing, such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), VCI (Vegetation Condition Index), MVCD (Maximum Value Composite Differential) and MVCI (Monthly Condition Index). With these indexes a number of maps were produced that visualise drought conditions in Iran. Further, the drought conditions for the years 1998 to 2000 could be forecasted for various regions of Iran.

Keywords: Drought assesment, monitoring, remote sensing, NDVI, vegetation index

Contact Address: Kourosh Ehteramian, Shirvan Islamic Azad University, Agriculture, No# 7 36th Sahid Saremi Shahid Saremi Blov., Mashhad, Iran, e-mail: ehteramian_kyahoo.com