Title: Remote Sensing of Agricultural Drought in Arid Regions : Monitoring, ulnerability & Prediction
Abstract:
In India, several states face with recurrent feature of drought episodes, specifically dry tracts comprising an arid or semi-arid regions. This scientific research shows the unbeaten capability of assessment and monitoring of the agricultural drought which impact farmer’s livelihood. To addressed this, a comprehensive analysis is framed for the most water scarce and drought-prone areas of Indian subcontinent i.e. Rajasthan, Marathwada and Bundelkhand. This scientifically innovative approach integrates satellite remote sensing, in-situ observations, climate and crop simulation models and statistical learning to gatherdefine the holistic information on various facet of drought management such as drought vulnerability, drought prediction and near real-time drought monitoring..
A novel approach defined for drought severity assessment of Bundelkhand for rabi season crops through Combined Drought Index. The results show that Northern part affected more as compared to the Southern part of the study area. A quantitative approach was used to derive agricultural drought vulnerability index of Marathwada region where the whole Latur is most vulnerable and Hingoli district least vulnerable. Agricultural drought prediction can be evaluated using satellite derived vegetation index and rainfall derived index with modelling and statistical analytics. A novel approach was used in prediction of agricultural drought using NDVI and SPI with modelling and statistical analytics of eastern Rajasthan. The effects of water stress on rice yield over Punjab and Haryana across North India by integrating Weather Research Forecasting and Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer model was analyzed using IRS satellite datasets and ground observations. It showed that the regional climate simulations can be potentially used for early water stress prediction and its impact on rice yield.
Biography:
Dr. N. R. Patel, has completed his PhD at the age of 30 years from Gujarat Agricultural University, India. He is the Head of Agriculture & Soils Department at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing. . He has published over 100 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing and Journal of Agrometeorology. He has been honored with Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Research Award for his contribution in the field of space applications to agrometeorology.
