Analysis of agronomic drought in a highly anthropogenic context based on satellite monitoring of vegetation and soil moisture

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze agronomic drought in a highly anthropogenic, semiarid region, the western Mediterranean region. The proposed study is based on Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) satellite data describing the dynamics of vegetation cover and soil water content through the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil Water Index (SWI). Two drought indices were analyzed: the Vegetation Anomaly Index (VAI) and the Moisture Anomaly Index (MAI). The dynamics of the VAI were analyzed as a function of land cover deduced from the Copernicus land cover map. The effect of land cover and anthropogenic agricultural activities such as irrigation on the estimation of the drought index VAI was analyzed. The VAI dynamics were very similar for the shrub and forest classes. The contribution of vegetation cover (VAI) was combined with the effect of soil water content (MAI) through a new drought index called the global drought index (GDI) to conduct a global analysis of drought conditions. The implementation of this combination on different test areas in the study region is discussed.