Remote sensing of vegetation prolonged drought at the salt playas of Hail – Saudi Arabia

Drought is a complex natural phenomenon with a wide variety of natural and socioeconomic impacts, including water scarcity, health, agriculture, etc. This study provides a short-term (2000–2019) trend assessment of drought in Hail region, Saudi Arabia, using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and rainfall dataset synchronized by the assessment of the decadal trends of the local land surface temperatures (LST). The NDVI and LST data were obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, while rainfall data were acquired from the Tropical Rainfal Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation database. The impacts of drought on soils and natural vegetation of the region were also considered. Results evidenced that natural vegetation witnessed a prolonged decline between 2000 and 2019, accompanied by a regional increase of the decadal LST trends and decline of rainfall. However, it seems that vegetation communities in this hyper-arid region are of high tolerance to soil salinity and drought. There is a general consensus that drought conditions prevailing in this region reflect the context of climate change prevailing in the region and worldwide.