Assessing the degree of flood damage to rice crops in the Chao Phraya delta, Thailand, using MODIS satellite imaging
2016
Kotera, Akihiko | Nagano, Takanori | Hanittinan, Patinya | Koontanakulvong, Sucharit
The Chao Phraya delta in Thailand is a major rice production area. It is often subject to large flooding events, which may result in widespread crop failures, as most recently recorded in 2011 and 2006. The extent of flood damage in such areas is commonly assessed by field surveys. In this study, we investigate the spatial extent of flood damage to rice production in the Chao Phraya delta from 2000 to 2011 using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer satellite images. We examine the temporal relationship between the harvest time, estimated from the time-series enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and the onset of inundation, estimated from the time-series land surface-water index and EVI. The total area of rice damage throughout nine provinces in the Chao Phraya delta during the severe flood in 2011 was estimated to be 79,189 ha, of which 41,410 ha was estimated as total damage. The damage in 2011 was particularly severe on the eastern side of the Chao Phraya River, and we found that most of the paddy fields that experienced flood damage in 2006 did not experience similar damage in 2011, despite the longer inundation period. Analysis over this 12-year period showed that there were few areas that were repeatedly subjected to damage, highlighting successful adaptations to avoid damage. This novel approach to agronomic flood-damage assessment using high temporal resolution imaging proposed in this study proved to be a promising tool for agronomic flood-damage assessments, which enable quick investigations providing valuable findings from wide area and long-term perspectives.
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