EVI, Temperature and Rainfall updates

EVI, Temperature and Rainfall updates#

This analysis focuses on environmental indicators, specifically Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Temperature, and Accumulated Rainfall across governorates in Syria. The aim is to assess changes in these key metrics over different time periods, comparing the full years of 2022 and 2023, as well as the first eight months of 2023 and 2024.

Data#

  1. Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI): EVI data was sourced from the MODIS satellite imagery, which provides high-resolution observations of vegetation health. This data helps quantify vegetation cover and assess agricultural productivity trends.

  2. Temperature: Surface temperature data was obtained from the ERA5 climate reanalysis dataset, which provides global atmospheric conditions at high spatial and temporal resolution.

  3. Accumulated Rainfall: Rainfall data was acquired from the CHIRPS dataset, a satellite-based rainfall product that provides daily and monthly precipitation data for the global land surface.

Methodologies#

  1. Google Earth Engine (GEE) API: The Earth Engine Python API was used to access and manipulate the MODIS, ERA5, and CHIRPS datasets. Using this platform, geospatial operations and large-scale data computations were performed directly on the cloud without needing local storage.

  2. Geospatial Data Processing: Governorate-level boundaries for Syria were obtained from a Geopandas dataset and were used to extract pixel-level data for each governorate. Raster data for EVI, temperature, and rainfall were masked using the governorate boundaries to aggregate the environmental indicators for each region.

  3. Comparative Analysis: Data for the years 2022, 2023, and partial 2024 were analyzed. Percent change in each indicator (EVI, temperature, and rainfall) is cbetween the values for two time periods (e.g., 2022 vs 2023). This allows for a standardized comparison of the magnitude of change across different environmental indicators and time periods.

  4. Visualization: The folium library was employed to generate interactive maps that overlay environmental changes over the geographic regions. The analysis generated maps for EVI, temperature, and rainfall changes between the years, illustrating significant trends or deviations.

EVI changes#

Calculating percentage of change in crop yields through EVI Proxy per Governorate

2022 vs 2023#

Map saved to syria_EVI_2023vs2022_map.html
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First 8 months of 2023 vs 2024#

Map saved to syria_EVI_2023vs2024_map.html
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Temperature Analysis#

Filtering and Exporting era5 Data from GEE#

Calculating Percentage of Change in Temperature per Governorate#

2022 vs 2023#

Map saved to syria_Temp_2022vs2023_map.html
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First 8 months of 2023 vs 2024#

Map saved to syria_Temp_2023vs2024_map.html
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Accumulated Rainfall#

Calculating percentage of change in Accummulated Rainfall per Governorate

2022 vs 2023#

Map saved to syria_Rainfall_2022vs2023_map.html
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First 8months of 2023 vs 2024#

Map saved to syria_Rainfall_2023vs2024_map.html
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Upcoming Analysis#

  1. Agricultural Productivity Analysis : Aggregate Shares by Productivity ; Median Agricultural Productivity by Governorates (similar to the methodology used in previous reports)

  2. Conflict and Agricultural Productivity : Investigating whether areas with better productivity scores show higher conflict averages since the start of the conflict

  3. Deforestation Trends Across Syria : Updating and examining deforestation trends across Syria, with a focus on recent reports indicating potential desertification in the northeast and examining the trends in deforestation ratios across the country and by region

  4. Agricultural Degradation Indicator : Exploration of potential indicators for assessing agricultural degradation across Syria

Contents