Abstract
Studying the significant impacts of drought on vegetation is crucial to understand its dynamics and interrelationships with precipitation, soil moisture, and temperature. In North and West Africa regions, the effects of drought on vegetation have not been clearly stated. Therefore, the present study aims to bring out the drought fluctuations within various types of Land Cover (LC) (Grasslands, Croplands, Savannas, and Forest) in North and West Africa regions. The drought characteristics were evaluated by analyzing the monthly Self-Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) in different timescale from 2002 to 2018. Then, the frequency of droughts was examined over the same period. The results have revealed two groups of years (dry years and normal years), based on drought intensity. The selected years were used to compare the shifting between vegetation and desert. The Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), the Temperature Condition Index (TCI), the Precipitation Condition Index (PCI), and the Soil Moisture Condition Index (SMCI) were also used to investigate the spatiotemporal variation of drought and to determine which LC class was more vulnerable to drought risk. Our results revealed that Grasslands and Croplands in the West region, and Grasslands, Croplands, and Savannas in the North region are more sensitive to drought. A higher correlation was observed among the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Surface Temperature (LST), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and Soil Moisture (SM). Our findings suggested that NDVI, TRMM, and SM are more suitable for monitoring drought over the study area and have a reliable accuracy (R2 > 0.70) concerning drought prediction. The outcomes of the current research could, explicitly, contribute progressively towards improving specific drought mitigation strategies and disaster risk reduction at regional and national levels.
Highlights
Drought is one of the most severe natural disasters throughout the world [1,2,3,4]
The Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), the Temperature Condition Index (TCI), the Precipitation Condition Index (PCI), and the Soil Moisture Condition Index (SMCI) were used to investigate the spatiotemporal variation of drought and to determine which Land Cover (LC) class was more vulnerable to drought risk
The drought events occurred in years 2002, 2009, 2010, and 2016 the Self-Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) were below the—ve 2 at all timescales of scPDSI
Summary
Drought is one of the most severe natural disasters throughout the world [1,2,3,4]. That is defined as an extended period with abnormal low rainfall relative to the statistical multi-year average, which causes changes in vegetation [5,6]. In Africa, there were frequent drought events that occurred in the last decades [16]. Touchan et al [17] studied the long-term perspective on droughts in northwestern Africa. They reported that the 20th century emerged as the driest among the last nine centuries. Shiferaw et al [18] and Bhavani et al [19] reported that droughts cause nearly 80% of the loss of life and 70% of the economic losses in Sub Saharan Africa. Drought events have troubled the economic development of several African countries [20] and endangered their developmental gains [21,22]
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