Agricultural drought conditions over mainland Southeast Asia: Spatiotemporal characteristics revealed from MODIS-based vegetation time-series

By Tuyen V. Ha, Soner Uereyen, and Claudia Kuenzer

Abstract
Drought is a reoccurring slow-onset hazard event and has a tremendous impact on agricultural production and ecosystem health. Mainland Southeast Asia is a major rainfed crop-producing area of the world, and this region is increasingly vulnerable to drought hazards. However, the monitoring and characterization of agricultural and vegetative droughts in this region remains understudied. This paper presented the first comprehensive analysis of spatiotemporal characteristics and trends of agricultural and vegetative droughts across the region using the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) based on the reconstructed MODIS-based vegetation time-series data between 2000 and 2021. This study also developed an approach for identifying severe drought years using annual extreme pixels. Results showed that vegetation-based drought characteristics and trends varied in space and time across the region. Central Myanmar suffered from the most frequent droughts (nearly 60%), but prolonged events were less common. By contrast, the Lower Mekong area suffered from frequent and prolonged drought conditions. Most of the recent severe droughts were observed in Cambodia, and this area is characterized by a drying trend. Regionally, the severe drought years were detected in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2016, 2019, and 2020, and they were commonly found in Central Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. The analysis of drought years indicated that the temporal change pattern of drought has shifted from the northern regions (e.g., Central Myanmar) in 2010 to the Lower Mekong region in recent years. The findings of this study provide valuable information for drought early warning management and agricultural planning across mainland Southeast Asia.

Full text here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2023.103378 This is an open-access article.

A personal note: Southeast Asia is widely known for its humid weather and often hit by typhoons. But this article shows that drought is also a challenge in Southeast Asia.

Florence and Pisa on alert as flooding hits Italy

'There has been flooding and landslides in parts of northern Italy as red alerts cover cities including Florence and Pisa.

Torrential rain prompted the alerts for parts of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, with heavy and persistent rainfall expected into the afternoon on Friday.

Tuscany's president said local rescue and health services were on high alert and advised residents to exercise "the utmost attention and caution".

Almost a month's worth of rain fell in Florence on Friday morning while landslides and mudslides were reported in Bologna, where some residents were evacuated on Thursday evening ahead of heavy rain overnight'
full details see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2jr7nr60ro

A personal note: many experiences show that floods and droughts often happen in turns. Will this also be the same? Hopefully not!