Evaluating the Agricultural Drought for Pre-Kharif Season in Bangladesh using MODIS Vegetation Health Index

Abstract

This paper aimed to characterize the spatial and temporal pattern of agricultural drought in Pre-Kharif season using Vegetation Health Index (VHI) andillustrated drought characteristics in Bangladesh during 2001-2015. VHI was calculated from TCI (Temperature Condition Index) and VCI (VegetationCondition Index) derived from MODIS Terra satellite data, LST (Land Surface Temperature) and EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index), respectively. Thefinding showed that all drought-affected areas were experienced by mild, moderate, severe and extreme droughts in several years of Pre-Kharif seasons. Significant drought events were found in the year of 2002 and 2013. On average, Chittagong district covered the largest drought area in all droughtstages, and the fraction of drought area was the highest in Sylhet and Rangpur for Pre-Kharif season. Finally, overlaying annual VHI raster mapsresulted in that the most vulnerable district to agricultural drought were Sylhet, Rangpur, and Mymensingh in the northern and eastern regions ofBangladesh.