Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Drought continues to be the worst natural hazard in the world affecting ecosystems, economies and overall human welfare with severe consequences in developing countries. While drought is an unavoidable climatic phenomenon, actions can be made to improve preparedness and mitigate the impacts upon pro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ashenafi Burka, Birhanu Biazin, Woldeamlak Bewket
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2024-01-01
Series:Geocarto International
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/10106049.2024.2395319
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850108199447822336
author Ashenafi Burka
Birhanu Biazin
Woldeamlak Bewket
author_facet Ashenafi Burka
Birhanu Biazin
Woldeamlak Bewket
author_sort Ashenafi Burka
collection DOAJ
description Drought continues to be the worst natural hazard in the world affecting ecosystems, economies and overall human welfare with severe consequences in developing countries. While drought is an unavoidable climatic phenomenon, actions can be made to improve preparedness and mitigate the impacts upon proper forecast on susceptibility. Drought susceptibility modeling plays a key role in determining how best to mitigate and adapt to drought occurrences. This research explores the application of geospatial techniques and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in drought susceptibility modeling for the drought-prone Bilate River watershed, located in the central Rift Valley drylands of Ethiopia. A total of 15 parameters were used including rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, normalized difference vegetation index, land surface temperature, soil texture, land use-land cover, topographic wetness index, modified normalized difference water index, drainage density, slope, elevation, population density and aspect to model drought susceptibility. Findings showed that nearly 70.2% of the area falls under the moderate drought category, followed by the severe (23.2%), mild drought (6.6%) and extreme (0.02%) drought categories in the watershed. Based on zonal administration, Wolayta Zone has a high spatial coverage of severe drought with 54.1% (659.3 km2) while Hadiya has a high spatial coverage of moderate drought with 24.6% (908.9 km2). The drought susceptibility model (DSM) receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was then created, and the area under curve (AUC) was calculated. The results of the analysis showed that the AUC is 0.701 (70.1%) indicating that the model is reasonably good model. Hence, geospatial approaches in conjunction with the AHP model improved the drought susceptibility modeling’s reliability, which has significant implications for drought adaptive management and preparedness planning.
format Article
id doaj-art-b5f47641ac7e4ccaa6533a9369181ead
institution OA Journals
issn 1010-6049
1752-0762
language English
publishDate 2024-01-01
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
record_format Article
series Geocarto International
spelling doaj-art-b5f47641ac7e4ccaa6533a9369181ead2025-08-20T02:38:26ZengTaylor & Francis GroupGeocarto International1010-60491752-07622024-01-0139110.1080/10106049.2024.2395319Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of EthiopiaAshenafi Burka0Birhanu Biazin1Woldeamlak Bewket2Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaInternational Potato Center, Tamale, GhanaDepartment of Geography and Environmental Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaDrought continues to be the worst natural hazard in the world affecting ecosystems, economies and overall human welfare with severe consequences in developing countries. While drought is an unavoidable climatic phenomenon, actions can be made to improve preparedness and mitigate the impacts upon proper forecast on susceptibility. Drought susceptibility modeling plays a key role in determining how best to mitigate and adapt to drought occurrences. This research explores the application of geospatial techniques and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in drought susceptibility modeling for the drought-prone Bilate River watershed, located in the central Rift Valley drylands of Ethiopia. A total of 15 parameters were used including rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, normalized difference vegetation index, land surface temperature, soil texture, land use-land cover, topographic wetness index, modified normalized difference water index, drainage density, slope, elevation, population density and aspect to model drought susceptibility. Findings showed that nearly 70.2% of the area falls under the moderate drought category, followed by the severe (23.2%), mild drought (6.6%) and extreme (0.02%) drought categories in the watershed. Based on zonal administration, Wolayta Zone has a high spatial coverage of severe drought with 54.1% (659.3 km2) while Hadiya has a high spatial coverage of moderate drought with 24.6% (908.9 km2). The drought susceptibility model (DSM) receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was then created, and the area under curve (AUC) was calculated. The results of the analysis showed that the AUC is 0.701 (70.1%) indicating that the model is reasonably good model. Hence, geospatial approaches in conjunction with the AHP model improved the drought susceptibility modeling’s reliability, which has significant implications for drought adaptive management and preparedness planning.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/10106049.2024.2395319Drought susceptibilitygeospatial techniquesAHPBilate River WatershedRift ValleyEthiopia
spellingShingle Ashenafi Burka
Birhanu Biazin
Woldeamlak Bewket
Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
Geocarto International
Drought susceptibility
geospatial techniques
AHP
Bilate River Watershed
Rift Valley
Ethiopia
title Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
title_full Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
title_fullStr Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
title_short Drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and AHP model: a case of Bilate River Watershed, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
title_sort drought susceptibility modeling with geospatial techniques and ahp model a case of bilate river watershed central rift valley of ethiopia
topic Drought susceptibility
geospatial techniques
AHP
Bilate River Watershed
Rift Valley
Ethiopia
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/10106049.2024.2395319
work_keys_str_mv AT ashenafiburka droughtsusceptibilitymodelingwithgeospatialtechniquesandahpmodelacaseofbilateriverwatershedcentralriftvalleyofethiopia
AT birhanubiazin droughtsusceptibilitymodelingwithgeospatialtechniquesandahpmodelacaseofbilateriverwatershedcentralriftvalleyofethiopia
AT woldeamlakbewket droughtsusceptibilitymodelingwithgeospatialtechniquesandahpmodelacaseofbilateriverwatershedcentralriftvalleyofethiopia