Agronomy and Horticulture Department

 

ORCID IDs

Teshome Regassa

Date of this Version

2015

Citation

International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 40 (2015) 39–54. doi: 10.1016/j.jag.2015.03.006

Comments

U.S. government work.

Abstract

Satellite-derived evapotranspiration anomalies and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are currently used for African agricultural drought monitoring and food security status assessment. In this study, a process to evaluate satellite-derived evapotranspiration (ETa) products with a geospatial statistical exploratory technique that uses NDVI, satellite-derived rainfall estimate (RFE), and crop yield data has been developed. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the ETa using the NDVI and RFE, and identify a relationship between the ETa and Ethiopia’s cereal crop (i.e., teff, sorghum, corn/maize, barley, and wheat) yields during the main rainy season. Since crop production is one of the main factors affecting food security, the evaluation of remote sensing-based seasonal ETa was done to identify the appropriateness of this tool as a proxy for monitoring vegetation condition in drought vulnerable and food insecure areas to support decision makers. The results of this study showed that the comparison between seasonal ETa and RFE produced strong correlation (R2> 0.99) for all 41 crop growing zones in Ethiopia. The results of the spatial regression analyses of seasonal ETa and NDVI using Ordinary Least Squares and Geographically Weighted Regression showed relatively weak yearly spatial relationships (R2< 0.7) for all cropping zones. However, for each individual crop zones, the correlation between NDVI and ETa ranged between 0.3 and 0.84 for about 44% of the cropping zones. Similarly, for each individual crop zones, the correlation (R2) between the seasonal ETa anomaly and de-trended cereal crop yield was between 0.4 and 0.82 for 76% (31 out of 41) of the crop growing zones. The preliminary results indicated that the ETa products have a good predictive potential for these 31 identified zones in Ethiopia. Decision makers may potentially use ETa products for monitoring cereal crop yields and early warning of food insecurity during drought years for these identified zones.

Tadesse IJAEOG 2015 Evaluating a satellite-based SUPPL 1.docx (14 kB)
supplementary data for Table 2

Tadesse IJAEOG 2015 Evaluating a satellite-based SUPPL 2.pdf (587 kB)
Summary of OLS Results - Model Variables

Tadesse IJAEOG 2015 Evaluating a satellite-based SUPPL 3.pdf (408 kB)
Summary of OLS Results - Model Variables

Tadesse IJAEOG 2015 Evaluating a satellite-based SUPPL 4.csv (25 kB)
all historical data (2000 to 2013) for satellite-derived evapotranspiration (ETa)

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