Risk Wise

[

] 181

drought warning information is issued in terms of ‘Watch, Alert and

Normal’ categories. The ‘Alert’ warning calls for immediate external

intervention, in terms of crop contingency plans. During September

and October, drought declaration is done in terms of

‘Mild, Moderate and Severe’ drought. Monthly/fort-

nightly drought reports are disseminated to the decision

makers in drought management during the monsoon

season (June to November), by electronic and traditional

mail. The feedback received from the user community

on drought reports is encouraging. The drought infor-

mation is being used by the Indian Government’s

Ministry of Agriculture and by state agriculture and relief

departments in agricultural situation review meetings, as

well as for the development of relief management

measures.

Time series data on agricultural area NDVI, aridity,

rainfall, irrigation support, cropping pattern and soils is

integrated in a spatial information system to define the

criteria and limits for assessing drought proneness.

Prepared based on multiple criteria, the drought vulner-

ability status of the district is useful in developing

long-term drought management measures with locale-

specific action plans.

The establishment of automatic weather stations, soil

moisture estimation, quantitative assessment of drought

impact and drought early warnings are just some of the

research initiatives that can strengthen drought risk

assessment capabilities.

Forest fire

In the context of India, a conventional fire control

system is limited in terms of area under coverage, due

Daily fire alert products (daytime data)

Left: All India level; Right: State level value added product

Source: Perspectives of Geoinformatics in forest fire management, 2006, Technical Report of NRSA, India

Identification of drought proneness

Multi-criteria approach for delineation of drought prone blocks

Source: Murthy, C.S., Sesha Sai, M.V.R., Dwivedi, R.S., Roy, P.S., Rao, G.G.S.N. and Rama

Krishna, Y.S., 2008, An integrated approach for characterization and delineation of drought

prone areas, Proc. International Symposium on Agromet and Food Security, Hyderabad, India.

1. Probability of aridity

2. Irrigation support

3. Soil characteristics

(AWC-Available Water Content)

4. Spectral information (NDVI)

(a) <50%

(b) 50-75%

(a) <50% cropped

area irrigated

(b) >50% cropped

area irrigated

(a) AWC <50

(b) AWC 50-100

(c ) AWC >100

CV >20%

Probability >50%