Integrating TRMM and MODIS satellite with socio-economic vulnerability for monitoring drought risk over a tropical region of India

• TRMM and MODIS are used in this study for drought assessment.
• NDVI deviation can be used for agricultural drought.
• TRMM is suitable for meteorological drought assessment.
• MODIS and TRMM with social vulnerability are useful for development of drought risk.
• Results indicate that the large part of the area is facing high to very high drought risk.

Drought is a recurring feature of the climate, responsible for social and economic losses in India. In the present work, attempts were made to estimate the drought hazard and risk using spatial and temporal datasets of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in integration with socio-economic vulnerability. The TRMM rainfall was taken into account for trend analysis and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) estimation, with aim to investigate the changes in rainfall and deducing its pattern over the area. The SPI and average rainfall data derived from TRMM were interpolated to obtain the spatial and temporal pattern over the entire South Bihar of India, while the MODIS datasets were used to derive the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) deviation in the area. The Geographical Information System (GIS) is taken into account to integrate the drought vulnerability and hazard, in order to estimate the drought risk over entire South Bihar. The results indicated that approximately 36.90% area is facing high to very high drought risk over north-eastern and western part of South Bihar and need conservation measurements to combat this disaster.