Drought risk mapping of south-western state in the Indian peninsula - A web based application

Application of geospatial technology is very shimmering in drought monitoring. Drpught severity in crops for six northern districts of Kerala has been attempted using Geospatial Techniques. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the major parameter used to measure vegetation health obtained from MODIS, Terra satellite products MOD13Q1, MODO2QKM. The mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of Kerala state over 13 years was calculated. The daily anomalies of NDVI from its long term mean NDVI over the same period was determined based on which drought risk classification was done. High negative NDVI anomaly areas are susceptible to drought and the severity of drought risk on each crop can be identified using Land Use/Land Cover data. Overlaying daily NDVI Anomaly based drought risk map on land use/land cover map gives the drought risk for different crops. Based on this, a web application has been developed for Northern districts of Kerala state in India. This web application can be used to plan for drought management measures and can also serve as a database for drought analysis. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.