Drought Risk Mapping in Iran Using Remote Sensing Data

A drought risk map has been prepared at the national scale using remote sensing satellite data in Iran by combining output layers resulted from three main components of a risk evaluation procedure including Hazard Quantification (HQ), Vulnerability Assessment (VA) and Identification of Elements at Risk (IER). In this respect, Drought Severity (DS) using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Iran land-cover classification map, Iran slope map, population density and irrigated farm percentage in each province are the layers that have been utilised within a Drought Risk Evaluation (DRE) process. The final risk map demonstrates that the north west of the country with a climate corresponding to central European weather conditions has the maximum quantity of drought risk, and the areas with the arid climate mainly located in the middle of Iran have the least amount of drought risk value. The outputs of this research assimilated with the results of a Drought Risk Analysis (DRA) prepared by other disciplines will provide a list of advices to help decision makers to reduce drought risk consequences. Adding other significant satellite data such as precipitation, temperature, soil moisture, drainage density and ground water table will enable researchers to evaluate and map drought risk more accurately.