Use of Landsat Land Surface Temperature and Vegetation Indices for Monitoring Drought in the Salt Lake Basin Area, Turkey

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate multitemporal land surface temperature (LST) changes by using satellite remote sensing data. The study included a real-time field work performed during the overpass of Landsat-5 satellite on 21/08/2011 over Salt Lake, Turkey. Normalized vegetation index (NDVI), vegetation condition index (VCI), and temperature vegetation index (TVX) were used for evaluating drought impact over the region between 1984 and 2011. In the image processing step, geometric and radiometric correction procedures were conducted to make satellite remote sensing data comparable with in situ measurements carried out using thermal infrared thermometer supported by hand-held GPS. The results showed that real-time ground and satellite remote sensing data were in good agreement with correlation coefficient (R (2)) values of 0.90. The remotely sensed and treated satellite images and resulting thematic indices maps showed that dramatic land surface temperature changes occurred (about 2°C) in the Salt Lake Basin area during the 28-year period (1984–2011). Analysis of air temperature data also showed increases at a rate of 1.5–2°C during the same period. Intensification of irrigated agriculture particularly in the southern basin was also detected. The use of water supplies, especially groundwater, should be controlled considering particularly summer drought impacts on the basin.