KBDI: Keetch-Byram Drought Index

AI-generated Key Takeaways

• The Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) dataset provides a continuous scale (0-800) for estimating the dryness of soil and duff layers, reflecting recent rainfall patterns and meteorological drought.

• KBDI values increase daily without rain (influenced by temperature) and decrease with rainfall, offering insights into soil moisture deficits.

• This dataset, available from 2007-01-01 to 2024-12-11, is valuable for drought monitoring, wildfire prevention, and agricultural planning, especially in rain-fed regions.

• Provided by the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo, the dataset is accessible through Google Earth Engine with a resolution of 4000 meters.

• Licensed under CC-BY-4.0, the KBDI dataset encourages research, education, and non-profit use for drought analysis and applications.

Dataset Availability

2007-01-01T00:00:00Z–2025-10-02T00:00:00Z

Dataset Provider

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Earth Engine Snippet

ee.ImageCollection("UTOKYO/WTLAB/KBDI/v1")

Cadence

1 Day

Tags

drought fire rainfall

kbdi

lst-derived

utokyo

wtlab

Description

Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) is a continuous reference scale for estimating the dryness of the soil and duff layers. The index increases for each day without rain (the amount of increase depends on the daily high temperature) and decreases when it rains. This system is based primarily on recent rainfall patterns. It is a measure of meteorological drought; it reflects water gain or loss within the soil.

The scale ranges from 0 (no moisture deficit) to 800 (extreme drought). The range of the index is determined by assuming that there is 20 cm of moisture in a saturated soil that is readily available to the vegetation (Keetch and Byram, 1968). KBDI is world widely used for drought monitoring for national weather forecast, wildfire prevention and usefully especially in regions with rain-fed crops.

Bands

Pixel Size
4000 meters

Bands

Name	Min	Max	Pixel Size	Description
KBDI	0	800	meters	Keetch-Byram Drought Index

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

CC-BY-4.0

Citations

Citations:

• Wataru Takeuchi, Soni Darmawan, Rizatus Shofiyati, Mai Van Khiem, Kyaw San Oo, Uday Pimple and Suthy Heng, 2015. Near-real time meteorological drought monitoring and early warning system for croplands in Asia. 36th Asian conference on remote sensing (ACRS): Manila, Philippines, Oct. 20, 2015.

Explore with Earth Engine

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Code Editor (JavaScript)

var collection = ee.ImageCollection('UTOKYO/WTLAB/KBDI/v1')
  .select('KBDI')
  .filterDate('2019-01-01', '2019-01-10');
var bandViz = {
  min: 0,
  max: 800,
  palette: [
    '001a4d', '003cb3', '80aaff', '336600', 'cccc00', 'cc9900', 'cc6600',
    '660033'
  ]
};
Map.addLayer(collection.mean(), bandViz, 'Keetch-Byram Drought Index');
Map.setCenter(120, 3, 3);

Open in Code Editor

KBDI: Keetch-Byram Drought Index

Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) is a continuous reference scale for estimating the dryness of the soil and duff layers. The index increases for each day without rain (the amount of increase depends on the daily high temperature) and decreases when it rains. This system is based primarily on recent rainfall …

UTOKYO/WTLAB/KBDI/v1, drought,fire,rainfall

2007-01-01T00:00:00Z/2025-10-02T00:00:00Z

-60 60 60 180

Google Earth Engine

https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets