ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses different Earth observation (EO) based input data are utilized to assess and characterize the historic drought events and to develop the impact-based combined drought index (CDI) and crp-yield anomaly prediction model for the Upper Blue Nile (UBN) Basin. It explores develop the Earth observation-based combined drought index, using the Z-score, Evaporative Drought Index (EDI), and Vegetation Condition Index, and to derive from the resulting Earth observation based combined drought index (EO-CDI) a multiple linear regression model for identifying crop-yield anomalies. The visual inspection of the time series plot further revealed that the wet years were also indicated by the combined drought index and the could show the potential of the Earth observation based combined index for drought assessment in the Upper Blue Nile Bain. The chapter considers the EO-CDI is developed using a random search of the optimal weights for each of the several Earth observation based drought indices.
