Drought Assessment across Erbil Using Satellite Products

Abstract

In this article, meteorological and agricultural droughts across the Erbil province, Iraq, were assessed using remote sensing data and satellite products. To this end, the long-term (2000–2022) Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at 1- and 3-month accumulation periods (SPEI-1 and SPEI-3) as well as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) across Erbil were utilized. While the former was retrieved from the global SPEI data repository, the latter was derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products. The spatiotemporal variations in the SPEI indices indicated that two to nine extreme drought events occurred in the province with an increasing northward pattern. An increasing trend in the long-term NDVI series was also detected, having more diversity in vegetation coverage in the northern part of the province. The relationship between the SPEI and MODIS-NDVI was found to be positive but insignificant. Thus, we concluded that short-term meteorological droughts were not the only reason for the agricultural droughts in Erbil. Furthermore, the climate characteristics related to the cumulative water balance over a previous season is not an important trigger for the spatial variation in vegetation coverage across the province.