INTERGRATED DROUGHT RISK INDICES FROM CLIMATE BASED AND SATTLELITE BASED OBSERVATION FOR AGRICULTURAL DROUGHT MONITORING IN THAILAND

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate climate based observation and satellite based indices in order to monitor agricultural drought in Thailand and to study the effect of agricultural indices on major economic crops. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and remotely sensed Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) were introduced to observe drought in the central region of Thailand. Integration of SPI and VCI has demonstrated the potential of geospatial technology to analyze and identify agricultural drought areas in macro scale at near-real time. The spatial analysis of 3-month SPI distribution indicates that it was the largest area of exceptional and extremely drought in 2010. VCI time series can be used to monitor vegetation condition correlating with moisture condition and landuse type. The frequency, area extent and severity of drought assessed from SPI and VCI could be benefit for the development of mitigation strategies of drought events.