IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aac/ijirss/v8y2025i2p2780-2789id5816.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate variability, drought, and vegetation - a comparison of three district municipalities in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Kayode Fatokun

Abstract

A study was conducted to compare climate variability, drought, and their effects on vegetation in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The assessment was done by examining the weather elements (rainfall, humidity, and temperature) over six years (2017-2022) in the three district municipalities of northern KwaZulu-Natal. The three district municipalities investigated were Zululand, King Cetshwayo, and uMkhanyakude. The spectral/drought (Rainfall Anomaly Index) and the vegetation indices [Modified Water Difference Index (MWDI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)] were also investigated. The results showed significant differences in humidity, temperature, and rainfall between the three district municipalities. There were indications that drought occurred at different times of the year in the studied municipalities. The intensity and duration of the drought also varied. Other findings include a correlation between rainfall and the vegetation indices. On average, King Cetshwayo received more rainfall than both uMkhanyakude and Zululand District Municipalities. uMkhanyakude had the least rainfall and was the most drought-prone, especially between May and September. The outcome of this study will undoubtedly contribute to how farmers in the three district municipalities decide when, what, and where to plant their crops to avoid or reduce the negative impact of climatic changes on crop growth and, consequently, on the yields of their crops.

Suggested Citation

  • Kayode Fatokun, 2025. "Climate variability, drought, and vegetation - a comparison of three district municipalities in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," International Journal of Innovative Research and Scientific Studies, Innovative Research Publishing, vol. 8(2), pages 2780-2789.
    • Handle: RePEc:aac:ijirss:v:8:y:2025:i:2:p:2780-2789:id:5816
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijirss.com/index.php/ijirss/article/view/5816/1063
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aac:ijirss:v:8:y:2025:i:2:p:2780-2789:id:5816. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Natalie Jean (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ijirss.com/index.php/ijirss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.