Assessment of Agricultural and Meteorological Drought in Southern Iraq’s Wetlands using Vegetation Condition and Drought Indices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54386/jam.v28i1.3161Keywords:
Drought, Iraq’s wetlands, Reconnaissance drought index (RDI), Remote sensing, Vegetation condition index (VCI)Abstract
The southern Iraq’s wetlands face many challenges that affect their environment and the livelihoods of local communities, including the problem of drought. This study aims to evaluate both meteorological and agricultural drought conditions within the marshland regions over a four-decade span (1984, 1994, 2004, 2014, and 2024). Satellite imagery from the Landsat multispectral scanner (MSS), Thematic mapper (TM), Enhanced thematic mapper (ETM) was employed to derive the vegetation condition index (VCI) to assess agricultural drought and climatic data were used to derive reconnaissance drought index (RDI) to assess meteorological drought. The result showed that the severity of the meteorological droughts increased over the period. In 1984, most of areas were under no drought condition while in 2024, most of the areas were under moderate to severe drought condition. The study also revealed that there was mild meteorological drought in 1994, but the agricultural drought conditions was severe and extreme. Overall, it suggests that the climate change and water scarcity have exacerbated agricultural drought condition in the region.
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