Investigating the drought index based on satellite images and its relationship with the reduction of the area under rice cultivation, a case study: (Ghamas province, Iraq)

Subject Areas : Agriculture and environment

Ali Nik ahd ¹ , Wathq Ahmad almatlak ² , ali ebrahimi ³

1 - Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Faculty of Agriculture and Modern Technologies, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch, Fars, Iran
2 - Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Faculty of Agriculture and Modern Technologies, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz International Branch, Shiraz, Fars, Iran
3 - گروه جنگل، مرتع و آبخیزداری، دانشکده منابع طبیعی و محیط زیست، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران

Received: 2023-04-10 Accepted : 2023-06-07 Published : 2023-06-20

Keywords: Drought, remote sensing, Modis, rice, Ghamas province.,

Abstract :

Introduction: Using indicators based on remote sensing, drought can be studied through its effects on crops and more accurate and effective results can be obtained. The severe drought conditions in the entire country of Iraq have caused the farming communities to witness a decrease in the harvest of rice, vegetables and fruits for the tenth year in a row. Therefore, farmers have to reduce the area under cultivation, which causes a decrease in their income and products. Ghamas province in Iraq is one of the regions that has rice cultivation lands and is suffering from drought. Therefore, this research has investigated the changes in the surface coverage under rice cultivation in this province and its relationship with the surface temperature in order to investigate drought Materials and Methods: In this research, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) related to the MODIS sensor was used to study the changes in vegetation cover. MODIS satellite data were prepared and collected for the study area during the years 2010 to 2022. Next, three remote sensing indices, NDVI, Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) were used to investigate the area under rice cultivation as well as land surface temperature and drought severity. Results and Discussion: According to the obtained results, the cultivated area of agricultural products has increased during this period in the studied area, so that in 2010 the area under cultivation according to VCI and NDVI indices is 11875 ha and 10337 ha ,respectively, while in 2022, it increased to 14775 ha and 13275 ha, respectively. The results showed that according to the NDVI, vegetation cover with a gentle slope had an increasing trend during this period, while according to the LST result, the land surface temperature decreased during this period. This shows that with the increase in vegetation, LST has decreased. Conclusion: The results showed that according to the NDVI index, the vegetation cover had an increasing trend during this period, while according to the LST index, the surface temperature of the earth decreased during this period. This shows that with the increase in vegetation, the surface temperature of the earth has decreased. However, according to the VCI index, the studied area is in a non-drought condition. Therefore, according to the obtained results, the increase in vegetation cover based on NDVI and the increase in VCI index and comparing it with the temperature of the target area, shows a decrease in the temperature of the earth's surface during these 10 years. As the temperature of the ground surface decreases, it indicates an increase in vegetation cover and the area under rice cultivation.

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