Publications

Senpakapriya, V; Goswami, J; Battacharjee, D; Das, R; Sarma, KK; Aggarwal, SP (2025). Geospatial Insights for Assessing Agricultural Drought Hazards of Rabi Season in Assam. JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF REMOTE SENSING.

Abstract
Agriculture is the backbone of the economy in the Northeastern state Assam. However, rainfed agricultural lands in the state have been frequently affected by drought in recent decades. Mapping agricultural drought hazards for a state like Assam is essential to address the mitigation-oriented drought risk management plans, as 3/4 of the state's population depends on agriculture and allied activities. Geospatial technology plays a significant role in continuously monitoring and assessing agricultural drought by providing spatio-temporal information on the land and atmosphere. In this study, satellite-derived indices related to precipitation-standardized precipitation index (SPI), vegetation status-normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and vegetation condition index (VCI), vegetation/surface water content-normalized difference water index (NDWI) and land surface water index (LSWI), a spectral angle based index-shortwave angle slope index (SASI) and soil moisture data for the Rabi crop season covering a period of twenty years from 2000 to 2020 is used; the occurrence rate for each index's drought severity class was calculated. Then, the agricultural drought hazard map was produced by establishing a drought hazard index (DHI) based on each index's drought severity and their occurrence rates. The result indicates that 7.71% and 27.97% of Assam's Rabi croplands fall under the very high and high agricultural drought hazard category, which requires in-season drought management practices.

DOI:
10.1007/s12524-024-02092-w

ISSN:
0974-3006