The assessment of drought relief by typhoon Saomai based on MODIS remote sensing data in Shanghai, China

Typhoons are one of the major natural hazards occurring frequently in Shanghai. The comprehensive assessment of drought relief by typhoon has become a major concern of scientists and government agencies in Shanghai, China. In this article, with the support of remote sensing data and the available data from local meteorological stations, the regional drought relief was investigated and the change of drought intensity was quantified by the typhoon “Saomai” between 5 and 8 August 2005. The precipitation anomaly calculated on the basis of recorded rainfall was adopted to analyze drought condition changes before and after the typhoon. Then, vegetation supply water index (VSWI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were used to monitor the drought relief due to the consecutive shortage of summer rainfall. Impact of typhoon on drought was compared by VSWI before and after typhoon Saomei. The results showed that the typhoon alleviated the drought of the vegetation by more than 70 %, based on the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation, the ground temperature, relative humidity, high temperature, NDVI from Shanghai area. The result shows that MODIS remote sensing data are a useful quantitative monitoring tool in drought relief by local typhoons. More strategies are necessary to be adopted for prevention and mitigation of meteorological disaster in Shanghai in recent years.