International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology (ISSN : 2277-1581) www.ijset.com, Volume No.1, Issue No.4, pg :149-157 01 Oct. 2012 149 Mapping of Agriculture Drought using Remote Sensing and GIS Surendra Singh Choudhary 1 , Dr. P.K. Garg 2 , Dr. S.K. Ghosh 3 1 Asst. Professor, ComputerEngg Deptt, Govt. Engineering College Bikaner 2,3 Professor, Geomatics Engg, Civil Engg Deppt, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee surendra2060@gmail.com 1 , pkgiitr@gmail.com 2 , scangfce@iitr.ernet.in 3 Abstract: Agriculture drought occurs when moisture level in soils is insufficient to maintain average crop yields. Initial consequences are in the reduced seasonal output of crops & other related production. An extreme agricultural drought can lead to a famine, which is a prolonged shortage of food in a restricted region causing widespread diseases and deaths from starvation. Agriculture drought is mainly dependent on low rainfall which results in agricultural production. This study demonstrates the use of Remote Sensing and GIS in the mapping of drought. In the present work, an effort has been made to assess drought condition using temporal images from Landsat TM, ETM+ in Jodhpur District, particularly where the occurrence of drought is high. The Landsat-7 ETM+ and Landsat-5 TM satellite sensor data were used for calculating Brightness Temperature (BT), Land Surface Temperature (LST). Correlation and regression analysis was performed between Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), Temperature Condition Index (TCI), and Food Grain Anomaly. BT was converted to the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and the Temperature Condition Index (TCI), which are useful indices for the estimation of vegetation health and agriculture drought. The yield and production analysis of crops analysis was carried out for a period of 21 years (1991–2011). On the basis of the satellite-based indices, the study area was divided into several drought categories; moderate, mild, no drought using GIS software. It was found that in years 2000, 2002 and 2010, the entire study area was affected by moderate drought with greater intensity. KEY WORDS: Drought Indices, Remote Sensing and GIS, Crop yield and Production 1. INTRODUCTION Drought is a climatic anomaly, characterized by deficient supply of moisture, resulting either from sub-normal rainfall, erratic rainfall distribution, higher water need or a combination of the entire factors (Bhalme and Mooley (1980). The escalating impact of drought has increasingly drawn the attention of scientists, planners and society. The vulnerability to drought in relation to the increasing needs of the growing population has become a point of great concern, especially at the food front. Drought is considered the most complex but least understood of all natural hazards, affecting more people than any other hazard. Drought is a normal feature of climate and its recurrence is inevitable (Mishra and Desai 2005). Different definitions of drought have been proposed from time to time depending on the moisture needs for specific human activities and subject of interest. In current hydrological literature, devising a suitable universal definition of drought has become a difficult task (Yevjevich 1967; Dracup et al., 1980b). Cole (1933) has defined drought as a period of at least 15 consecutive days none of which had rainfall of 2.5 mm or more. According to Hoyt (1936), there is a drought when annual rainfall is less than 85% of normal. Ramdas (1960) has defined drought as a situation when rainfall is deficient by twice of its mean deviation. Konstantinov (1968) believed that drought should be studied using an analysis of deficit of evapotranspiration, which defined as the difference between the potential and the real evapotranspiration. Palmer (1965) has defined drought at a given location, as a period of time, lasting months or years, during which the actual moisture supply consistently falls short of the climatically expected moisture supply. Dracup et al. (1980a) has defined drought as a period of time (month/year) with rainfall/runoff below a mean truncation level which is derived from long term rainfall/runoff series. Variables which are used either alone or in combination for defining drought are rainfall, temperature, humidity, evaporation from free water, transpiration from plants, soil moisture, wind, stream flow and wind conditions. Drought is difficult to detect and monitor for three reasons: (1) it develops slowly, and the onset and end are indistinct; (2) it is precisely and universally defined and (3) its impact is non-structural and often spreads over a very large area (Wilhite 2000). The global climate change is characterized by increase in surface temperatures to the tune of 0.6±0.2°C over the twentieth century and with a projected rise in the range of 13.5°C by 2100 (Houghton et al. 2001). Climate change is expected to change the existing vulnerability profile of India (O’Brien et al. 2004). The studies on the past climate indicated an increase in the temperatures to the tune of 0.57°C per 100 years (Kumar et al. 1994; Singh et al. 2001). Some studies identified decadal departures above and below the long time average rainfall alternatively for three consecutive decades