Drought was a severe recurring phenomenon in Iraq over the past two decades due to climate change despite the fact that Iraq has been one of the most water-rich countries in the Middle East in the past. The Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) is located in the north of Iraq, which has also suffered from extreme drought. In this study, the drought severity status in Sulaimaniyah Province, one of four provinces of the IKR, was investigated for the years from 1998 to 2017. Thus, Landsat time series dataset, including 40 images, were downloaded and used in this study. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) were utilized as spectral-based drought indices and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was employed as a meteorological-based drought index, to assess the drought severity and analyse the changes of vegetative cover and water bodies. The study area experienced precipitation deficiency and severe drought in 1999, 2000, 2008, 2009, and 2012. Study findings also revealed a drop in the vegetative cover by 33.3% in the year 2000. Furthermore, the most significant shrinkage in water bodies was observed in the Lake Darbandikhan (LDK), which lost 40.5% of its total surface area in 2009. The statistical analyses revealed that precipitation was significantly positively correlated with the SPI and the surface area of the LDK (correlation coefficients of 0.92 and 0.72, respectively). The relationship between SPI and NDVI-based vegetation cover was positive but not significant. Low precipitation did not always correspond to vegetative drought; the delay of the effect of precipitation on NDVI was one year.

尽管伊拉克过去是中东最富水的国家之一，但由于气候变化，伊拉克在过去的二十年里干旱是一个严重的反复现象。伊拉克库尔德斯坦地区（IKR）位于伊拉克北部，那里也遭受了极端干旱的折磨。在这项研究中，调查了IKR四个省之一的苏莱曼尼亚省的干旱严重程度，调查了1998年至2017年的年份。因此，下载并使用了包括40张图像的Landsat时间序列数据集。归一化植被指数（NDVI）和归一化水分指数（NDWI）被用作基于光谱的干旱指数，而标准化降水指数（SPI）被用作基于气象的干旱指数，评估干旱严重程度并分析植被和水体的变化。该研究区域在1999、2000、2008、2009和2012年经历了降水不足和严重干旱。研究结果还表明，2000年的植被覆盖率下降了33.3％。此外，观察到水体的萎缩最为明显达班迪克汗湖（LDK）在2009年损失了40.5％的总表面积。统计分析表明，降水与SPI和LDK的表面积呈显着正相关（相关系数分别为0.92和0.72）。 。SPI和基于NDVI的植被覆盖之间的关系是积极的，但并不显着。降水不足并不总是对应于植物干旱。