Spatiotemporal Mapping of Agricultural and Meteorological Drought in Wasit Province based on GIS and Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

One of the most common natural hazards that can endanger life and property is drought, which can happen under a variety of weather and environmental circumstances. This study aims to monitor the agricultural and metrologi - cal drought in the Wasit Province using remote sensing data. Landsat 8 images were used to create the agriculture drought maps based on the NDVI for the years 2013, and 2023. Additionally, SPI-12 was used for the same years to evaluate the meteorological drought. The findings demonstrated that while SPI readings in 2023 were lower, the SPI-12 in 2013 indicated near-normal drought types. Two types of drought have been identified: moderate and slight. The result shows that, for the year 2013 the percentage of moderate drought is 31%, slight drought 64%, and no drought 3.9% from the total area. While, in 2023 the percentage of moderate drought is 47%, slight drought 49%, and no drought 3.2% from the total area. It is noticed that in 2023, the moderate drought class increased by about 16%. Government planners may find this results valuable when developing and managing drought consequences .