Monitoring Agricultural Drought: The Case of Kenya - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 243

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[243

Line
——
-0.6
——
Long
* PgEn

Figure 18.3 Arid and semiarid
Lands of Kenya (from Ominde,
1971).

D rought indices indicated that the 2000 drought was far more severe than
th at of 1984 in many parts of Kenya. Many people lost their lives in 1984.
M illions were displaced in search of water, food, and grazing land. Al-
th ough the 2000 drought was more severe, the impacts were much less
se vere due to the early warning provided by DMCN and Kenya Meteoro-
lo gical Department (KMD).

[243

Remote Sensing
R emotely sensed data can now be used as proxies for records. In the case
of agriculture, the NDVI (chapters 5 and 6) is one such proxy for moni-
to ring vegetation conditions, while cold cloud duration (CCD; chapter 20)
an d cloud temperatures are common proxies for rainfall. A comparison of
th e near-real time composite NDVI values with the average and any past
re cords can help delineate areas with relatively drier and/or greener veg-
et ation conditions. In Kenya, NDVI has been used to monitor vegetation
co ver, which together with the quartile indices is used to monitor drought.
Fo r example, NDVI images showed a general deterioration in vegetation
co nditions over northern and eastern Kenya, where some locations experi-
en ced the driest conditions since 1961 in May 2001 (DMCN, 2001).
Landsat series has also provided continuous data on the conditions of
th e earth's terrestrial surface for more than 25 years. These data are crucial
in addressing the consequences of drought through ecosystem mapping,