Assessment of drought vulnerability zones by integrating TRFNAHP and GIS approaches

Drought is a critical global challenge that severely impacts farmers and communities, and its effects are exacerbated by climate change. The Dharmapuri District in Tamil Nadu, India, is chosen as the study area because it is highly prone to drought. In this region, approximately 70% of the population depends on agriculture. Various parameters are used, including the normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference water index, land use and land cover, geology, soil, rainfall, slope, lineament density, temperature, geomorphology, elevation, and normalized multiband drought index. These parameters were selected from the literature review on drought vulnerability. The aim of the study area is to determine Drought Vulnerability Zones (DVZ) by integrating Trapezoidal Fuzzy Numbers Analytical Hierarchy Process (TRFNAHP) method and Geographic Information System (GIS) approaches. The results of the DVZ classification are as follows: very low (12.63%), low (27.33%), moderate (24.87%), high (22.95%), and very high (12.22%). The drought vulnerability index is validated using the receiver operating characteristic curve. In the receiver operating characteristic curve, an area under the curve value of 0.89% indicated the best prediction accuracy in the study area.