Using climate-soil-socioeconomic parameters for a drought vulnerability assessment in a semi-arid region: Application at the region of El Hodna, (M’sila, Algeria)

The objective of this study is to contribute in assessing and monitoring drought’s vulnerability by developing a GIS-based model to determine vulnerable areas to this natural hazard; the model utilizes a series of agricultural, statistical, meteorological and remotely sensed data, using GIS weighed ponderation and multicriteria analysis decision making, with the integration of three components: climatic sensibility, soil sensibility and socioeconomic sensibility. The result is a vulnerability map classified into five classes according to pixel values. Very Vulnerable class forms 19.46% of the study area, vulnerable class forms 32.81% and 21.37% of the area is not vulnerable, the study presents a modeling procedure of which the final results provide to researchers, users and decision makers important information on the environmental situation of the study area, for better prediction, and risk management