Mapping Agricultural Drought and its Coping Strategies Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in East Shewa Zone, Central Rift Valley Region of Ethiopia
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Date
2016-06
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
Drought is one of the most complex naturally occurring disasters that results in serious
human life, environmental, social and economic costs around the world. Particularly,
agricultural drought in developing countries like Ethiopia is very disastrous causing
population displacement, food shortage, loss of life and reduction of agricultural output. In
order to monitor agricultural drought risk, GIS and remote sensing have a significant role
which paves the way for development of drought coping strategies. This research was
conducted in East Shewa Zone of Oromia Region of Ethiopia with the objective of mapping
agricultural drought risk using GIS and remote sensing. The research was also aimed at
identification of major drought coping strategies practiced in the study area. To achieve
these objectives, both primary and secondary sources of data were employed. Both satellite
remote sensing data and socioeconomic data was utilized in this research. In addition, key
informant interviews and focus group discussions were employed to identify drought coping
strategies. The result of drought severity index indicated that 2005 and 2009 were years of
drought while 2013 identified as wet year. On the other hand based the result of SPI 2005
and 2009 were years of droughts while 2012 wet year. The result also showed that there is an
increasing correlation (r = 0.7) between long term NDVI and seasonal rainfalls. The results
were supported by the interviews and focus group discussions. Based on the result
droughtbrissk map, 5.1% of the zone are under extreme drought risk, 31.9% severe drought,
27.1% moderate drought and 32.5% are under mild drought. Thus, it is only the remaining
3% of the East Shewa Zone that are not vulnerable to drought. The study identified the major
drought coping strategies in the area to be receiving of food, water, edible oil, and other food
supplements by the government and NGOs. In addition, reducing food intake, petty trading,
hoarse cart and daily labor, selling charcoal and dried cow dung were also the coping
strategies employed during drought years by the affected communities. It is recommended
that for detailed investigation of drought risk assessment using long-term SPOT NDVI
characterized by high spatial resolution is good for the study area. Moreover, establishment
of formal early warning information centers particularly for rainfall distributions would
boost the application of different drought coping strategies to mitigate impacts of droughts.
Key words: Drought risk, coping strategies, GIS, NDVI, remote sensing, SPOT.
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Keywords
Drought risk, Coping strategies, GIS, NDVI, Remote sensing, SPOT