Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

Different vegetation indices from satellite images have been used for monitoring drought damages, and this study aimed to develop a drought index using NOAA/AVHRR NDVI(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and to analyze the temporal and spatial distribution of spring drought severity in North Korea from 1998 to 2001. A new drought index, DevNDVI(Deviation of NDVI), was defined as the difference between a monthly NDVI and average monthly NDVI at the same cover area, and the DevNDVI images at all years except for 2001 demonstrated the drought-damaged areas referred from various domestic and foreign publications. The vegetation of 2001 showed high vitality despite the least amount of rainfall among the target years, and the reason was investigated that higher temperature above normal average would shift the growing stages of plants ahead. Therefore, complementary methods like plant growth models or ground survey data should be adopted in order to evaluate drought-induced plant stress using satellite-based NDVI and to make up for the distortion induced by other environments than lack of precipitation.