Impact of Drought on Land Productivity and Degradation in the Brazilian Semiarid Region

The Brazilian semiarid region (BSR) has faced severe drought over the last three decades, which led to a significant decline in land productivity, posing considerable threat food security and local economy communities. United Nations Convention Combat Desertification (UNCCD) proposed use of Earth observation-derived vegetation indices for monitoring degradation across regions. In this study, we aim evaluate comprehensive UNCCD-recommended productivity dynamic (LPD) approaches BSR by utilizing standardized precipitation–evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at 12-month time scales as benchmark obtained from ground-based measurements. Our findings indicate that LPD methods residual trends analysis (RESTREND), Trends.Earth (TE), Food Agricultural Organization’s World Overview Conservation Approaches Technologies (FAO-WOCAT) are best suited identifying degraded areas compared other approaches. However, it is advisable these with caution, since they do not fully capture impact on may result underestimating extent areas. RESTREND-based LPD, TE, FAO-WOCAT estimate reached 213,248 km2, 248,075 246,783 km2 land, respectively, between 2001 2015. These be valuable decision-makers involved management conservation efforts Sertão Brazil.