Drought Monitoring over Paddy Field area in Indramayu District, West Java using Remotely Sensed Indices

In this research, several meteorological and agricultural drought indices based on remote sensing data are built for drought monitoring over paddy area in Indramayu District, West Java, Indonesia. The meteorological drought index of Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is developed from monthly Outgoing Long Wave Radiation (OLR) data from 1980 to 2005. The SPI represents the deficient of precipitation. Meanwhile, the agricultural drought of Vegetation Health Index (VHI) was developed from daily Moderate-resolution ImagingSpectroradiometer (MODIS) data during dry season (May-August) 2003-2006. The VHI was designed to monitoring vegetation health, soil moisture, and thermal conditions. The result shows that the agricultural drought occurate in Indramayu District, especially in the northern and southern part during the dry season in 2003 and 2004. It is found that there is a strong correlation between VHI and soil moisture measured in the field (r=0.84).p.34-45 : ilus. ; 30 c