High-Resolution Plant Water Stress Monitoring

Drought is recognized as one of the world’s most pressing and costly natural hazards, with direct impacts on vegetation that threaten water resources and food production globally. However, assessing and monitoring the impact of droughts on vegetation is extremely challenging as plants vary across species and ecosystems in their sensitivity to water deficits. In recent years, new remote sensing satellites have begun to collect data at a high spatial and temporal resolution, capable of capturing plant drought information at intra-field level.

This project leverages a new generation of remote sensing observations to provide high-resolution plant water stress at regional to global scales. The aim is to provide a plant drought monitoring product with farmland-specific services for water and socioeconomic management. This project also aims to provide the first quantitative and comprehensive evaluation of the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation drought response under climate change. The accurate and timely global drought detection and drought impact maps from this project are expected to assist land and water resource managers in drought mitigation planning. The project will also enhance our understanding of global carbon-water-energy cycle responses to drought.