Drought Vulnerability Assessment in the High Barind Tract of Bangladesh Using MODIS NDVI and Land Surface Temperature (LST) Imageries

The North-Western part of Bangladesh has been experiencing extreme weather and frequent drought conditions compare to the other parts of the country. In this paper, we used MYD13Q1 and MOD11 of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) /Terra in order to extract Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and Temperature Condition Index (TCI). Finally, these both information helped to derive Vegetation Health Index (VHI) during high summer periods in 2000, 2008 and 2014 to assess drought vulnerability in terms of agriculture. Mainly NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and LST (Land Surface temperature) were the main geospatial data to map Vegetation Health Index (VHI). From the VHI analysis, we found that about 147956 (29 % of the total), 173194 (34 % of the total) and 191352 (37 % of the total) hectare lands as extreme, high and moderate drought areas respectively in the study area. In addition to this analysis, Naogoan and Chapai Nabanganj districts were found as the extreme to high drought vulnerable areas in terms of agriculture.