In early 2008, eight wheat-farming provinces and autonomous regions in north China were hit by the most severe drought spell over the past 50 years. With an objective of serving the national efforts in mitigating natural calamities, CEODE initiated an emergency project to monitor the drought developments by making good use of their remote sensing technologies. The researchers also built up a platform at CEODE website to share more than 100 scenes of data from such satellites as Landsat TM, IRS-P6, LISS3, and ENVISAT-ASAR. The data, covering the main drought-hit areas of Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Hebei provinces, could be downloaded from the website free of charge.

By using the data obtained from satellites MODIS, Landsat TM and IRS-P6, CEODE researchers monitored such parameters as wheat growth conditions, leaf area index and water shortage index of crops. By making an anomaly analysis of the current and historical data, they obtained the dynamic information of the draught. In particular, they made efforts in finding out the dynamic changes of the drought in January, 2009 and the water table variances in reservoirs of Henan Province.　
 
The researchers classified the drought into three grades. For a light one, the leaf area index is lowered by less than 15% in comparison with that of the same period in previous years. For a moderate one, the figure is less than 35%, and a heavy one, more than 35%. According to an analytic study on the drought damages in the first and last 10 days in the January, 2009, the drought changes are divided into three grades: stable areas (the change of drought index between the two stages is less than 5%), deteriorating areas (the change is within 15%) and drastically deteriorating areas (more than 15%). In this way, the dynamic trend of the drought spell is plotted for the January of 2009 in seven provinces, namely, Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu and Anhui.　　

Table 1. Remote sensing information about the drought in seven provinces in January, 2009.

Province		Drought grades
		Light	Moderate	Heavy
Henan	Early January(%)	60	38	2
	Late January (%)	32	34	34
Shandong	Early January (%)	37	61	2
	Late January (%)	20	51	29
Shanxi	Early January (%)	12	87	1
	Late January (%)	11	78	11
Shaanxi	Early January(%)	18	77	5
	Late January (%)	15	66	19
Northern Anhui	Early January(%)	74	23	3
	Late January (%)	46	25	29
Northern Jiangsu	Early January(%)	48	41	11
	Late January (%)	35	27	38
Southern Hebei	Early January(%)	30	70	0
	Late January (%)	21	72	7

Table 2. Remote sensing information about the changes of the drought spell in seven provinces in January, 2009.

Province	Percentage of changes
	Stable	Increase	Drastic growth
Henan	36	21	43
Shandong	58	15	27
Shanxi	84	6	10
Shaanxi	76	10	14
Northern Anhui	34	19	17
Northern Jiangsu	41	21	39
Southern Hebei	82	11	7

The monitoring survey showed that this drought spell was serious with great changes in various regions. During the first 10 days of the January, the heavily or moderately hit areas were Shaanxi, Shanxi, central and western parts of Shandong, northern Jiangsu, northwestern Henan, and Hebei. In the last 10 days of the month, when wheat seedlings were turning green with the rising temperature, the soil moisture content is low with arid weather, the situation was deteriorated in the following wheat growing regions: Guanzhong in Shaanxi; southern Shanxi; northwestern, southern and eastern Henan; northern Jiangsu; Fuyang and the area north to the Huaihe River in Anhui; southwestern Shandong; and southeastern Hebei.

In a bid to obtain the real information about the drought in the bread-baskets of Shandong and Henan, CEODE joined hands with scientists of local agricultural research institutes in Beijing, Shandong, and Henan to carry out on-the-spot investigations at 65 sampling points. The parameters included yielded biomass, tillering number, rate of dead seedlings, rate of withered leaves, soil moisture, soil types, and planting management. Based on this, they predicted the spell’s impacts on the wheat growth and yields. These investigations show that the most ravaged areas were predominantly located in Henan and Shandong. This result is basically in agreement with the conclusion reached by the data obtained from the earth-scanning satellites.　　 

Fig.1-1-1 A remote sensing monitoring map showing the draught in seven provinces (early January, 2009)

Monitoring Statistics of the Draught in Early January (%) 
　　　　 

Fig.1-1-2 A remote sensing monitoring map showing the draught in seven provinces (late January, 2009)

Monitoring Statistics of the Draught in Late January (%)

Fig.1-1-3 A remote sensing monitoring map showing draught changes in seven provinces (January, 2009)

The areas lightly hit by the drought:

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 (a)　　　　　　　　　　　　　 (b)

Fig.1-1-4a The sampling area in Wenxian, Henan. 

Fig.1-1-4b The sampling area in Jining, Shandong.

The areas moderately hit by the drought:

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 (c)　　　　　　　　　　　　　  (d)

Fig.1-1-4c The sampling area in Mengzhou, Henan. 

Fig.1-1-4d The sampling area in Heze, Shandong.

The areas heavily hit by the drought:

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  (e)　　　　　　　　　　　　  (f)