Analysis of the 2012-2016 drought in the northeast Brazil and its impacts on the Sobradinho water reservoir

ABSTRACT

The northeast region of Brazil (NEB) suffers with the worst drought during 2012–2016 that has greatly affected water availability in general, in particular the hydropower reservoirs. We have analyzed a large dataset of satellite measurements and images to understand the variability of precipitation, land surface temperature (LST) and their association with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), indicator of water and vegetation stress. The drought conditions during 2012–2016 show association of poor rainfall in the year 2012, an increase of LST 7ºC above the average, reduction in NDVI upto 30% and a sharp decrease upto 28% in Relative Humidity (RH). The largest reservoir of the NEB, Sobradinho, shows decline in surface water upto about 50% which is clearly evident from the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) for the period 2015–2016 compared to the year 2011.

Acknowledgments

The author (Samara Calçado de Azevedo) is thankful to FAPESP for the awarded fellowship (grant number 2015/26743-5) to visit Chapman University and for national project (grant number 2013/25257-4). The authors are grateful to the two anonymous Reviewers for their comments/suggestions to improve earlier version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo [2013/25257-4, BEPE 2015/26743-5];