Analysis of vegetation dynamics, drought in relation with climate over South Asia from 1990 to 2011

Drought is the most complex climate-related disaster issue in South Asia, because of the various land-cover changes, vegetation dynamics, and climates. The aims of the current research work were to analyze the performance of AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and spatiotemporal differences in vegetation dynamics on a seasonal basis by correlating the results with NASA’s MERRA precipitation and air temperature for monitoring vegetation dynamics and drought over South Asia. Our approach is based on the use of AVHRR NDVI data and NASA’s MERRA rainfall and air temperature data (1990–2011). Due to the low vegetation and dryness, the NDVI is more helpful in describing the drought condition in South Asia. There were rapid increases in NDVI, VHI, and VCI from April to October. Monthly NDVI, VHI, and VCI stabilize in September and improved once more in October and then show a declining trend in December. The monthly PCI, TCI, VHI, and VCI values showed that the South Asia goes through an extreme drought in 2000, which continues up to 2002, which lead the highest water stress. Spatial correlation maps among NDVI, precipitation, air temperature, VHI, and VCI on a seasonal basis. The correlation between NDVI and precipitation showed a significantly higher correlation value in JJA and SON seasons; the spatial correlation between NDVI and air temperature showed significant high values in DJF, JJA, and SON periods, while the correlation between VHI and TCI showed a significantly higher values in MAM and SON seasons, which indicated a good sign for dryness monitoring, mainly for farming regions during these seasons in South Asia. It was confirmed that these indexes are a comprehensive drought monitoring indicator and a step to monitoring the climate change in South Asia, which will play a relevant role ongoing studies on vegetation types, monitoring climate change, and drought over South Asia.