Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study

Agricultural droughts affect whole societies, leading to higher food costs, threatened economies, and even famine. In order to mitigate such effects, researchers must first be able to monitor them, and then predict them; however no book currently focuses on accurate monitoring or prediction of these devastating kinds of droughts. To fill this void, the editors of Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought have assembled a team of expert contributors from all continents to make a global study, describing biometeorological models and monitoring methods for agricultural droughts. These models and methods note the relationships between precipitation, soil moisture, and crop yields, using data gathered from conventional and remote sensing techniques. The coverage of the book includes probabilistic models and techniques used in America, Europe and the former USSR, Africa, Asia, and Australia, and it concludes with coverage of climate change and resultant shifts in agricultural productivity, drought early warning systems, and famine mitigation. This will be an essential collection for those who must advise governments or international organizations on the current scope, likelihood, and impact of agricultural droughts. Sponsored by the World Meterological Organization

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization Forward by Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization 1: Vijendra K. Boken: Agricultural Drought and its Monitoring and Prediction: Some Concepts 2: Keith T. Ingram: Drought Related Characteristics of Important Cereal Crops 3: Lino Naranjo D¢iaz: Monitoring Agricultural Drought using El Niño and Southern Oscillation Data 4: Zekai ,Sen and Vijendra K. Boken: Techniques to Predict Agricultural Droughts 5: Assaf Anyamba, Compton J. Tucker, Alfredo R. Huete, and Vijendra K. Boken: Drought Monitoring Using Coarse-Resolution Polar-Orbiting Satellite Data 6: Felix N. Kogan: NOAA/AVHRR Satellite Data Based Indices for Monitoring Agricultural Droughts 7: Thomas J. Jackson: Passive Microwaves Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture and Regional Drought Monitoring 8: Anne M. Smith, Klaus Scipal, and Wolfgang Wagner: Active Microwaves Systems for Drought Stress Monitoring 9: Donald A. Wilhite, Mark D. Svoboda, and Michael J. Hayes: Drought Monitoring in the United States: Status and Trends 10: J. Alfredo Rodríguez-Pineda, Lorrain Giddings, H¢etor Gadsden, and Vijendra K. Boken: Agricultural Droughts in North-Central Mexico 11: A. Anthony Chen, Trevor Falloon, and Michael Taylor: Agricultural Drought Monitoring for the West Indies 12: Orivaldo Brunini, Pedro Leite Da Silva Dias, Alice M. Grimm, Eduardo Delgado Assad, and Vijendra K. Boken: Agricultural Drought Phenomenon In Latin America With Focus On Brazil 13: Z. Bochenek, K. Dabrowska-Zielinska, A.Ciolkosz, S. Drupka, and V.K. Boken: Agricultural Drought Monitoring for Poland 14: Fátima Espírito Santo, Rita Guerreiro, Vanda Cabrinha Pires, Luís E. V. Pessanha, and Isabel M. Gomes: Agricultural Drought Monitoring in Mainland Portugal 15: A. D. Kleschenko, E. K. Zoidze, and V.K. Boken: Agricultural Drought Monitoring for Russia 16: Eddy De Pauw: Agricultural Drought Monitoring for the Near East 17: Engida Mersha and Vijendra K. Boken: Agricultural Droughts in Ethiopia 18: L. A. Ogallo, S. B. Otengi, P. Ambenje, W. Nyakwada , and F. Githui: Agricultural Drought Monitoring: The Case of Kenya 19: J. Rowland, J. Verdin, A.. Adoum, and G. Senay: Drought Monitoring Techniques for Famine Early Warning Systems in Africa 20: L. S. Unganai and T. Bandason: Agricultural Drought Monitoring for Southern Africa 21: Marion Pratt, Macol Stewart Cerda, Mohammed Boulahya, and Kelly Sponberg: Harnessing Radio and Internet Systems to Monitor and Mitigate Agricultural Droughts in Rural African Communities 22: Jerry W. Stuth, Jay Angerer, Robert Kaitho, Abdi Jama, and Raphael Marambii: Livestock Early Warning System for Africa Rangelands 23: A.S. Rao and V.K. Boken: Agricultural Drought Monitoring and Management in India 24: Ahsan U. Ahmed, A. Iqbal, and A.M. Choudhury: Agricultural Droughts in Bangladesh 25: Apisit Eiumnoh, Rajendra P. Shrestha, and Vijendra K. Boken: A Drought Warning System for Thailand 26: Rizaldi Boer and A.R. Subbiah: Agricultural Droughts in Indonesia 27: Nguyen van Viet and Vijendra K. Boken: Agricultural Droughts in Vietnam 28: Guoliang Tian and Vijendra K. Boken: Monitoring Agricultural Droughts in China 29: K. A. Day, K. G. Rickert, and G. M. McKeon: Agricultural Drought Monitoring for Australia 30: H. Ryong Byun, S. Young Hong, and Vijendra K. Boken: Agricultural Drought Monitoring for South Korea 31: M.V.K. Sivakumar: World Meteorological Organization and Agricultural Droughts 32: Elijah Mukhala: Food and Agriculture Organization and Agricultural Drought 33: Ashbindu Singh: International Activities Related to Dryland Degradation Assessment and Drought Early Warning 34: Gennady V. Menzhulin, Sergey P. Savvateyev, Arthur P. Cracknell, and Vijendra K. Boken: Climate Change, Global Warming, and Agricultural Droughts

Review :
"This book's 34 chapters provide quite a thorough and capable overv0ew of the techniques used to monitor drought in both developed and developing countires.... Monitoring and Prediciting Agricultural Drought has a wealth of information on crops,climate, and drought monintoring techniques for 19 countries and regions of the world."-- Bulletin of American Meteorological Society "Quite simply, drought kills. In an effort to combat it, the international contributors of these 34 papers cover the basic concepts of agricultural drought and its monitoring, prediction and analysis, techniques and examples of remote sensing such as passive and active microwave systems, and case studies from the Americas, Europe, Russia, the Near East, Africa, Asia, and Australia."--SciTech Book News "The book is well written and edited."--CHOICE "Quite simply, drought kills. In an effort to combat it, the international contributors of these 34 papers cover the basic concepts of agricultural drought and its monitoring, prediction and analysis, techniques and examples of remote sensing such as passive and active microwave systems, and case studies from the Americas, Europe, Russia, the Near East, Africa, Asia, and Australia."--SciTech Book News "The book is well written and edited."--CHOICE