UNOSAT Gaza Strip Agricultural Damage Assessment - April 2024 Full Details

Full Details

Title:

UNOSAT Gaza Strip Agricultural Damage Assessment - April 2024

Description:

**UNOSAT code: CE20231007PSE** This map illustrates satellite-detected changes in agricultural areas of the Gaza Strip resulting from the decline in the health and density of crops due to the ongoing conflict. UNOSAT conducted an analysis utilising satellite imagery collected by the Sentinel-2 satellite between April 2017 and 2024, performing a Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) analysis as well as a multitemporal classification to identify notable changes taking place in agricultural areas during that timeframe. The methodology evaluated the damage as a substantial decline in the health and density of crops in January 2024, in comparison to the preceding seven seasons spanning from 2017 to 2024. The decline in the health and density of the crops can be observed due to the impact of activities such as razing, heavy vehicle activity, bombing, shelling, and other conflict-related dynamics. The analysis includes damage assessment for permanent crop fields, arable land, and fallow lands. UNOSAT analysis shows that the agricultural extent in the Gaza Strip is estimated to be 178 sq. km, accounting for approximately 49% of the total area of the Gaza Strip, following an extensive land-cover analysis. Compared to the average of the previous seven years, approximately 45% of the permanent crop fields and arable land in the Gaza Strip exhibited a significant decline in health and density in April 2024. In a comprehensive evaluation, it was found that there has been a 33% increase in the proportion of agricultural land that has been damaged since the previous analysis conducted in January 2024. Additionally, the analysis indicates a notable rise in the destruction of the permanent crop fields and arable land in the Khan Yunis Governorate, with a 30-percentage point increase compared to the previous January 2024 analysis. Moreover, there has been a significant escalation in the destruction of agricultural land within the Rafah Governorate, with the percentage rising from 11% in January 2024 to 43% in April 2024. This is a preliminary analysis and has not yet been validated in the field.

Provider:

Humanitarian Data Exchange

Resource Class:

Datasets

Theme:

Society

Temporal Coverage:

2024

Place:

State of Palestine

License:

http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by-sa

Access Rights:

Public

Format:

Files

Language:

English

Date Added:

2024-05-31