article · Water
Drought poses periodic challenges to water supplies and farming in semi-arid regions. To evaluate both meteorological and agricultural droughts, rainfall data spanning 1992 to 2024 from 20 stations across the Thanjavur district were integrated with multi-temporal Landsat satellite imagery. Meteorological conditions were assessed using the Standardised Precipitation Index and spatial Kriging interpolation. Agricultural conditions and vegetation stress were tracked via the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index and Vegetation Condition Index alongside land use classifications. The vegetation indices highlighted an intensification of agricultural drought in 2010. Spatial and temporal evaluations revealed that periodic severe drought covered between 3% and 19% of the study area across selected observation years. An Analytical Hierarchy Process combined these indicators, prioritising precipitation patterns followed by vegetation indices and land cover, establishing an integrated framework to trace how meteorological drought influences agricultural drought.
Droughts severely disrupt food production and water availability. Combining decades of ground-level rainfall measurements with satellite-derived vegetation tracking helps pinpoint exactly where and when water stress impacts crops. This approach improves the understanding of how meteorological deficits evolve into agricultural damage, supporting better timing for irrigation planning and sustainable land management in vulnerable semi-arid farming regions.
The research presents an applied analytical framework combining satellite data, rainfall indices, and multi-criteria decision-making. Potential users include regional agricultural planners, irrigation managers, and water resource authorities looking to target relief or water distribution. The approach is an applied, tested methodology rather than a packaged software product, sitting at a stage where regional bodies would need to integrate the multi-indicator pipeline into existing spatial monitoring systems.
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Drought is a complex and periodic issue that has a significant impact on agriculture and water resources, particularly in semi-arid areas. This study evaluated meteorological and agricultural drought conditions in the Thanjavur district by combining rainfall data with remote-sensing methods. Meteorological drought was analyzed using 33 years of rainfall data and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) (1992–2024) using 20 rainfall stations for the data available between 1992 and 2024. The spatial variation in rainfall was analyzed using Kriging interpolation in GIS. Agricultural droughts were analyzed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Vegetation Con0dition Index (VCI) using multi-temporal Landsat satellite images (Landsat 5 and Landsat 8). Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) classification was included to determine drought vulnerability across different land types. The NDVI and VCI indices showed an intensification of agricultural drought in 2010. The results demonstrated temporal and spatial differences in drought conditions for the years 1992, 1997, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024 and indicated that the region experienced periodic severe drought conditions of 3%, 3%, 3%, 8%, 19%, 9%, and 11% in the study area, respectively. During the drought period, the vegetation indices showed a strong sensitivity of agricultural areas to changes in rainfall, and low NDVI and VCI values indicated increased vegetation stress. Meteorological and agricultural droughts were integrated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method by combining various indicators to analyze the drought condition across the Thanjavur district. The multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) method uses pairwise comparisons of various factors, such as giving high importance to SPI and rainfall, followed by vegetation indices and LULC. The consistency ratio validated the reliability of the weighting term. This method shows that combining meteorological and remote sensing indicators advances a robust framework for monitoring and assessing droughts. Conceptual droughts illustrate how meteorological droughts are associated with the development of agricultural droughts. The results of this study can be adopted for effective drought management, irrigation planning, and sustainable agricultural practices in this region.
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DOI: 10.3390/w18172096
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