APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING IN DROUGHT MONITORING: THE CASE OF THYOLO, MALAWI.

Remote sensing stands to be the most vibrant method that provides real time and large area data. It is more advantageous in drought monitoring than traditional methods. In instances, meteorological observations become unreliable in particular regions where scarcity of weather monitoring tools is problem. The study involved the extraction of advanced drought indicators from remotely sensed data to assess the drought occurrence in Thyolo. Such indicators include, Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalised Difference Vegetation index (NDVI) and Vegetation Water Supply Index (VWSI). The study shows that many locations in the district experienced high temperatures for a prolonged period. There was also poor vegetation which predominated during the 2015/16 growing season. Most importantly, the study finds that the district was hit by drought during that season. The north, northeast, east and southeast locations were mostly hit by extreme drought. Such areas were the ones which were mostly hit by high temperatures for a prolonged period which led to vegetation failure. Furthermore, the study indicates that 40 %, 35 %, 10 % and 5 % of the areas were affected by severe, extreme, moderate and slight droughts respectively. Only 10 % of the area had normal conditions for health vegetation growth. Such being the case, I recommend the GoM to develop drought monitoring systems so that future drought cases are detected and initiatives must be put in place to minimize their likely adverse impacts to communities in the country as a whole.

It is more advantageous in drought monitoring than traditional methods. Such indicators include, Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalised Difference Vegetation index (NDVI) and Vegetation Water Supply Index (VWSI). Such being the case, I recommend the GoM to develop drought monitoring systems so that future drought cases are detected and initiatives must be put in place to minimize their likely adverse impacts to communities in the country as a whole. Drought, monitoring, NDVI, LST, VWSI and Remote Sensing

The study was conducted in Thyolo district as it is the one of the districts that suffered food insecurity during 2016-2017 season in the southern region. The district is located in the southern region of Malawi at 13°30′ South latitude and 34° East and covers an area of 1,715 km2 (Katherine, 2014). According to Katharine (2014), the wet season is muggy and mostly cloudy, the dry season is mostly clear and its warm year around and over the course of the year. The temperature typically varies from 140C to 300C and is rarely below 130C or above 350C (Katharine, 2014). The hot season lasts for 2.4 months from September 23 to December 2, with an average high temperature above 280 C (Katharine, 2014). The cool season lasts for 2.2 months, from June 2 to August 9, with an average daily high temperature below 240 C (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The average percentage of the sky covered by clouds experiences extreme seasonal variation over the course of the year (Katharine, 2014). The cloudier part of the year begins around November 15 and lasts for 4.4 months, ending around March 28 (Katharine, 2014). A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The chance of wet days in Thyolo varies very significantly throughout the year (Katharine, 2014). The wetter season lasts for 4.2 months, from November 23 to March 28, with a greater chance of a given day being a wet day (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The chance of wet day peaks as 72% on January 18 and drier season lasts 7.8 months, from March 28 to November 23 (Katharine, 2014).

District: Thyolo

Coordinates: -16.12965, 35.1166