• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.1-14
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• 2019

North Korea has frequently suffered from extreme agricultural crop droughts, which have led to food shortages, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The increasing frequency of extreme droughts, due to global warming and climate change, has increased the importance of enhancing the national capacity for drought management. Historically, a meteorological drought index based on data collected from weather stations has been widely used. But it has limitations in terms of the distribution of weather stations and the spatial pattern of drought impacts. Satellite-based data can be obtained with the same accuracy and at regular intervals, and is useful for long-term change analysis and environmental monitoring and wide area access in time and space. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI), a satellite-based drought index using the ratio of potential and actual evaporation, is being used to detect drought response as a index of the droughts occurring rapidly over short periods of time. It is more accurate and provides faster analysis of drought conditions compared to the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). In this study, we analyze drought events during 2015-2017 in North Korea using the ESI satellite-based drought index to determine drought response by comparing with it with the SPI and SPEI drought indices.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

The development of drought index that provides detailed-spatial-resolution drought information is essential for improving drought planning and preparedness. The objective of this study was to develop the concept of using satellite-based hybrid drought index called the Vegetation Drought Response Index in South Korea (VegDRI-SKorea) that could improve spatial resolution for monitoring local and regional drought. The VegDRI-SKorea was developed using the Classification And Regression Trees (CART) algorithm based on remote sensing data such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from MODIS satellite images, climate drought indices such as Self Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (SC-PDSI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and the biophysical data such as land cover, eco region, and soil available water capacity. A case study has been done for the 2012 drought to evaluate the VegDRI-SKorea model for South Korea. The VegDRI-SKorea represented the drought areas from the end of May and to the severe drought at the end of June. Results show that the integration of satellite imageries and various associated data allows us to get improved both spatially and temporally drought information using a data mining technique and get better understanding of drought condition. In addition, VegDRI-SKorea is expected to contribute to monitor the current drought condition for evaluating local and regional drought risk assessment and assisting drought-related decision making.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.25-37
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• 2024

Global warming-induced drought inflicts significant socio-economic and environmental damage. In Korea, the persistent drought in the southern region since 2022 has severely affected water supplies, agriculture, forests, and ecosystems due to uneven precipitation distribution. To effectively prepare for and mitigate such impacts, it is imperative to develop proactive measures supported by early monitoring systems. In this study, we analyzed the spatiotemporal changes of multiple evapotranspiration-based drought indices, focusing on the flash drought event in the southern region in 2022. The indices included the Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) considering precipitation and temperature, and the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) based on satellite images. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and SPEI indices utilized temperature and precipitation data from meteorological observation stations, while the ESI index was based on satellite image data provided by the MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite. Additionally, we utilized the Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) provided by the North Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a supplementary index to ESI, enabling us to perform more effective drought monitoring. We compared the degree and extent of drought in the southern region through four drought indices, and analyzed the causes and effects of drought from various perspectives. Findings indicate that the ESI is more sensitive in detecting the timing and scope of drought, aligning closely with observed drought trends.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.121-131
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• 2018

Climate change has caused changes in environmental factors that have a direct impact on agriculture such as temperature and precipitation. The meteorological disaster that has the greatest impact on agriculture is drought, and its forecasts are closely related to agricultural production and water supply. In the case of terrestrial data, the accuracy of the spatial map obtained by interpolating the each point data is lowered because it is based on the point observation. Therefore, acquisition of various meteorological data through satellite imagery can complement this terrestrial based drought monitoring. In this study, Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) was used as satellite data for drought determination. The ESI was developed by NASA and USDA, and is calculated through thermal observations of GOES satellites, MODIS, Landsat 5, 7 and 8. We will identify the difference between ESI and other satellite-based drought assessment indices (Vegetation Health Index, VHI, Leaf Area Index, LAI, Enhanced Vegetation Index, EVI), and use it to analyze the drought in South Korea, and examines the applicability of ESI as a new indicator of agricultural drought monitoring.

• KCID journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.78-88
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• 2014

This study is to analyze the 2012 spring drought of Korea using drought index and satellite image. The severe spring drought recorded in May of 2012 showed 36.4% of normal rainfall(99.5mm). The areas of west part of Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheong-do were particularly serious. The drought indices both the SPI(Standardized Precipitation Index) and WADI(WAter supply Drought Index) represented the drought areas from the end of May and to the severe drought at the end of June. The drought by SPI completely ended at the middle of July, but the drought by WADI continued severe drought in the agricultural reservoir watersheds of whole country even to the end of the July. On the other hand, the results by spatial NDVI(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and EVI(Enhanced Vegetation Index) data from Terra MODIS, both indices showed relatively low values around the areas of Sinuiju, Pyongyang, and west coast of North Korea and Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheong-do of South Korea indicating drought condition. Especially, the values of NDVI and EVI at Chungcheong-do were critically low in June compared to the normal year value.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2022

Currently, the Korea Meteorological Administration evaluates the meteorological drought by region using SPI6(standardized precipitation index 6), which is a 6-month cumulative precipitation standard. However, SPI is an index calculated only in consideration of precipitation at 69 weather stations, and the drought phenomenon that appears for complex reasons cannot be accurately determined. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to calculate and compare SPI considering only precipitation and SDCI (Scaled Drought Condition Index) considering precipitation, vegetation index, and temperature in Gyeonggi. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of the station data-based drought index and the satellite image-based drought index were identified by using results calculated through the comparison of SPI and SDCI. MODIS(MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite image data, ASOS(Automated Synoptic Observing System) data, and kriging were used to calculate SDCI. For the duration of precipitation, SDCI1, SDCI3, and SDCI6 were calculated by applying 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month respectively to the 8 points in 2014. As a result of calculating the SDCI, unlike the SPI, drought patterns began to appear about 2-month ago, and drought by city and county in Gyeonggi was well revealed. Through this, it was found that the combination of satellite image data and station data increased efficiency in the pattern of drought index change, and increased the possibility of drought prediction in wet areas along with existing dry areas.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.51-61
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• 2020

Drought events are not clear when those start and end compared with other natural disasters. Because drought events have different timing and severity of damage depending on the region, various studies are being conducted using satellite images to identify regional drought occurrence differences. In this study, we investigated the applicability of drought assessment using the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite images. The ESI is an indicator of agricultural drought that describes anomalies in actual and reference evapotranspiration (ET) ratios that are retrieved using remotely sensed inputs of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Leaf Area Index (LAI). However, these approaches have a limited spatial resolution when mapping detailed vegetation stress caused by drought, and drought hazard in the actual crop cultivation areas due to the small crop cultivation in South Korea. For these reasons, the development of a drought index that provides detailed higher resolution ESI, a 500 m resolution image is essential to improve the country's drought monitoring capabilities. The newly calculated ESI was verified through the existing 5 km resolution ESI and historical records for drought impacts. This study evaluates the performance of the recently developed 500 m resolution ESI for severe and extreme drought events that occurred in South Korea in 2001, 2009, 2014, and 2017. As a result, the two ES Is showed high correlation and tendency using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis. In addition, it will provide the necessary information on the spatial resolution to evaluate regional drought hazard assessment and and the small-scale cultivation area across South Korea.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.41-50
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• 2024

Precipitation is an important component of the hydrological cycle and a key input parameter for many applications in hydrology, climatology, meteorology, and weather forecasting research. Grid-based satellite rainfall products with wide spatial coverage and easy accessibility are well recognized as a supplement to ground-based observations for various hydrological applications. The error properties of satellite rainfall products vary as a function of rainfall intensity, climate region, altitude, and land surface conditions. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the commonly used new global grid-based satellite rainfall product, Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), using data collected at different spatial and temporal scales. Additionally, in this study, grid-based CHIRPS satellite precipitation data were used to evaluate the 2022 extreme drought. CHIRPS provides high-resolution precipitation data at 5 km and offers reliable global data through the correction of ground-based observations. A frequency analysis was performed to determine the precipitation deficit in 2022. As a result of comparing droughts in 2015, 2017, and 2022, it was found that May 2022 had a drought frequency of more than 500 years. The 1-month SPI in May 2022 indicated a severe drought with an average value of -1.8, while the 3-month SPI showed a moderate drought with an average value of 0.6. The extreme drought experienced in South Korea in 2022 was evident in the 1-month SPI. Both CHIRPS precipitation data and observations from weather stations depicted similar trends. Based on these results, it is concluded that CHIRPS can be used as fundamental data for drought evaluation and monitoring in unmeasured areas of precipitation.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.47-57
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• 2021

Drought monitoring over paddy field area is an important role as the frequency and intensity of drought due to climate change increases. This study analyzed the applicability of drought monitoring on paddy crops using MODIS-based field surveys. As a satellite-based drought index using evapotranspiration for quantitative drought determination, ESI (Evaporative Stress Index), was applied and calculated through the ratio of MODIS- based actual and potential evapotranspiration. For the irrigated areas of Idong, Gosam, Geumgwang, and Madun reservoirs the availability of irrigation water supply, ponding depth, precipitation, paddy growth were investigated for the paddy field within one grid of MODIS. In addition, the percentile-based ESI drought severity was calculated to compare the growth process of paddy and changes in the drought category of ESI. The Idong area was irrigated about a week later than other reservoirs for the period of water supply, transplanting, and water drainage and the ESI drought category tended to be different. The Gosam, Geumgwang, and Madun area expressed moderate drought prior to the farming season, and indicated normal as the water was supplied. During the water drainage, the drought category intensified, indicating that the water available on land was decreasing. These results demonstrated that the MODIS-based ESI could be an effective tool for agricultural drought monitoring over paddy field area.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.57-67
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• 2023

A flash drought is a rapid-onset drought that develops over a short period of time as weather and environmental factors change rapidly, unlike general droughts, due to meteorological abnormalities. Abnormally high evapotranspiration rates and rapid declines in soil moisture increase vegetation stress. In addition, crop yields may decrease due to flash droughts during crop growth and may damage agricultural and economic ecosystems. In this study, Flash Drought Intensity Index (FDII) based on soil moisture data from Gravity Recovery Climate Experiment (GRACE) was used to analyze flash drought. FDII, which is calculated using soil moisture percentile, is expressed by multiplying two factors: the rate of intensification and the drought severity. FDII was developed for domestic flash drought events from 2014 to 2018. The flash drought that occurred in 2018, Chungcheongbuk-do showed the highest FDII. FDII was higher in heat wave flash drought than in precipitation deficit flash drought. The results of this study show that FDII is reliable flash drought analysis tool and can be applied to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of flash drought in South Korea.