TY - JOUR N2 - The scarcity of annual rainfall, which sometimes spreads over successive years, causes persistent droughts. In order to study the drought severity on the Algerian steppe, we analysed precipitation data (1985–2015) from the weather stations of Ain Sefra, El Bayadh, Tiaret and Djelfa, using drought meteorological indices: the mean deviation, the standardised precipitation index, the rainfall index and the frequency analysis of the rainfall series. Thus, we adopted the diachronic study by satellite remote sensing for the years 2002 (the driest year) and 2009 (the wettest year), which allowed us to better understand the evolution of the steppe rangelands surface and to better interpret their spatial-temporal changes. Drought, as determined by the mean deviation index, occurred during two periods (in sequence and corresponds to 55% the sequences of deficit years), one over 12 years (from 1994/1993 to 2006/2005) and the other over 5 years (1985–1990) and with isolated years. The results of the diachronic study of the vegetation change demonstrate the obvious divergence of the vegetation cover between 2002 and 2009. Drought has impacts on vegetation composition, growth, productivity, structure and functioning of ecosystems, which limits regeneration of vegetation cover. L1 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/123525/PDF-MASTER/2022-02-JWLD-26.pdf L2 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/123525 PY - 2022 IS - No 53 EP - 218 DO - 10.24425/jwld.2022.140799 KW - drought KW - indices KW - remote sensing KW - spatial-temporal analysis KW - steppe A1 - Bouarfa, Said A1 - Farhi, Yassine A1 - Youb, Okkacha A1 - Boultf, Meriem A1 - Djoudi, Warda A1 - Faci, Mohammed PB - Polish Academy of Sciences; Institute of Technology and Life Sciences - National Research Institute DA - 2022.06.28 T1 - Spatio-temporal assessment of drought in the semi-arid region of Algerian steppe through index and remote sensing SP - 210 UR - http://www.journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/123525 T2 - Journal of Water and Land Development ER -