Geospatial solutions for evaluating the impact of the Tigray conflict on farming
- Author
- Biadgilgn Demissie Mullaw (UGent) , Jan Nyssen (UGent) , Sofie Annys (UGent) , Emnet Negash (UGent) , Tesfakiros Gebrehiwet, Fetien Abay and Eleonore Wolff
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- Military conflicts strongly affect agricultural activities. This has strong implications for people’s livelihoods when agriculture is the backbone of the economy. We assessed the effect of the Tigray conflict on farming activities using freely available remote sensing data. For detecting greenness, a normalized difference vegetation Index (NDVI) was analyzed in Google Earth Engine (GEE) using Sentinel 2 satellite images acquired in the pre-war (2020) and during war (2021) spring seasons. CHIRPS data were analyzed in GEE to understand the rainfall conditions. The NDVI of 2020 showed that farmlands were poorly covered with vegetation. However, in 2021, vegetation cover existed in the same season. The NDVI changes stretched from − 0.72 to 0.83. The changes in greenness were categorized as increase (2167 km2), some increase (18,386 km2), no change (1.6 km2), some decrease (8269 km2), and decrease (362 km2). Overall, 72% of the farmlands have seen increases in green vegetation before crops started to grow in 2021. Scattered patches with decreases in vegetation cover correspond to irrigation farms and spring-cropping rain-fed farms uncultivated in 2021. There was no clear pattern of changes in vegetation cover as a function of agro-climatic conditions. The precipitation analysis shows less rainfall in 2021 as compared to 2020, indicating that precipitation has not been an important factor. The conflict is most responsible for fallowing farmlands covered with weeds in the spring season of 2021. The use of freely accessible remote sensing data helps recognizing absence of ploughing in crisis times.
- Keywords
- Remote sensing, Farming activities, Resilience, Vegetation Index, Humanitarian crisis, War, WATER CONSERVATION, COVER, RESIDUALS, INDEX, NDVI, SIZE, SOIL, WAR
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8749770
- MLA
- Mullaw, Biadgilgn Demissie, et al. “Geospatial Solutions for Evaluating the Impact of the Tigray Conflict on Farming.” ACTA GEOPHYSICA, vol. 70, no. 3, 2022, pp. 1285–99, doi:10.1007/s11600-022-00779-7.
- APA
- Mullaw, B. D., Nyssen, J., Annys, S., Negash, E., Gebrehiwet, T., Abay, F., & Wolff, E. (2022). Geospatial solutions for evaluating the impact of the Tigray conflict on farming. ACTA GEOPHYSICA, 70(3), 1285–1299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-022-00779-7
- Chicago author-date
- Mullaw, Biadgilgn Demissie, Jan Nyssen, Sofie Annys, Emnet Negash, Tesfakiros Gebrehiwet, Fetien Abay, and Eleonore Wolff. 2022. “Geospatial Solutions for Evaluating the Impact of the Tigray Conflict on Farming.” ACTA GEOPHYSICA 70 (3): 1285–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-022-00779-7.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Mullaw, Biadgilgn Demissie, Jan Nyssen, Sofie Annys, Emnet Negash, Tesfakiros Gebrehiwet, Fetien Abay, and Eleonore Wolff. 2022. “Geospatial Solutions for Evaluating the Impact of the Tigray Conflict on Farming.” ACTA GEOPHYSICA 70 (3): 1285–1299. doi:10.1007/s11600-022-00779-7.
- Vancouver
- 1.Mullaw BD, Nyssen J, Annys S, Negash E, Gebrehiwet T, Abay F, et al. Geospatial solutions for evaluating the impact of the Tigray conflict on farming. ACTA GEOPHYSICA. 2022;70(3):1285–99.
- IEEE
- [1]B. D. Mullaw et al., “Geospatial solutions for evaluating the impact of the Tigray conflict on farming,” ACTA GEOPHYSICA, vol. 70, no. 3, pp. 1285–1299, 2022.
@article{8749770,
abstract = {{Military conflicts strongly affect agricultural activities. This has strong implications for people’s livelihoods when agriculture is the backbone of the economy. We assessed the effect of the Tigray conflict on farming activities using freely available remote sensing data. For detecting greenness, a normalized difference vegetation Index (NDVI) was analyzed in Google Earth Engine (GEE) using Sentinel 2 satellite images acquired in the pre-war (2020) and during war (2021) spring seasons. CHIRPS data were analyzed in GEE to understand the rainfall conditions. The NDVI of 2020 showed that farmlands were poorly covered with vegetation. However, in 2021, vegetation cover existed in the same season. The NDVI changes stretched from − 0.72 to 0.83. The changes in greenness were categorized as increase (2167 km2), some increase (18,386 km2), no change (1.6 km2), some decrease (8269 km2), and decrease (362 km2). Overall, 72% of the farmlands have seen increases in green vegetation before crops started to grow in 2021. Scattered patches with decreases in vegetation cover correspond to irrigation farms and spring-cropping rain-fed farms uncultivated in 2021. There was no clear pattern of changes in vegetation cover as a function of agro-climatic conditions. The precipitation analysis shows less rainfall in 2021 as compared to 2020, indicating that precipitation has not been an important factor. The conflict is most responsible for fallowing farmlands covered with weeds in the spring season of 2021. The use of freely accessible remote sensing data helps recognizing absence of ploughing in crisis times.}},
author = {{Mullaw, Biadgilgn Demissie and Nyssen, Jan and Annys, Sofie and Negash, Emnet and Gebrehiwet, Tesfakiros and Abay, Fetien and Wolff, Eleonore}},
issn = {{1895-6572}},
journal = {{ACTA GEOPHYSICA}},
keywords = {{Remote sensing,Farming activities,Resilience,Vegetation Index,Humanitarian crisis,War,WATER CONSERVATION,COVER,RESIDUALS,INDEX,NDVI,SIZE,SOIL,WAR}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{1285--1299}},
title = {{Geospatial solutions for evaluating the impact of the Tigray conflict on farming}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-022-00779-7}},
volume = {{70}},
year = {{2022}},
}
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