The temporal and spatial analysis of drought in Yellow River Basin using remote sensing and GIS

The Yellow River is the second largest river in China and plays the main role as the water resource in the northern parts of China. Drought is a feature of the Yellow River Basin and has significant impacts on the environment and economical development in the region. Drought is usually separated into meteorological drought and real drought. In this paper we used the Drought Index to express the meteorological drought and NDVI mean deviation to express the real drought. On the basis of the precipitation and temperature data and NDVI data of AVHRR from 1981 to 1999, we calculated the value of the Drought Index and NDVI mean deviation in the Yellow River Basin, and employed the model of Slop and Correlation to study the condition of meteorological drought and real drought. After comparing the trend of meteorological drought and real drought during the period 1982 to 1999, we divided the drought in the Yellow River Basin into four regional classes and respectively analyzed the temporal and spatial features of meteorological and real drought. Finally, we concluded that the drought in the Yellow River Basin is serious.