EO4DEMOC

Earth Observation For Drought Effects Monitoring On Crops

2022 highlighted the fragilities of the Italian agricultural system related to water supply. Not irrigated crops were affected by drought, causing yield loss and affecting livestock and food market. The increasing number of extreme events remind about the need of a forecasting system able to map location and time where/when extreme events affect crops. While Earth Observation (EO) and Geoinformation represent great opportunities for environmental monitoring, a system aiming at monitoring/managing water supply to crops at the regional/national scale is currently missing. In this project, open EO products, coupled with ground-based data, will be used as the basis for the development of a prototypal service for mapping and forecasting drought effects on crops. Machine learning and physically-based techniques will be considered and coupled with cloud computing facilities and open-source tools. The project will ensure rapid progress in this field to advance the national context and raise awareness among scientific community, policymakers, stakeholders and citizens on the sustainable development/management of water supply for agricultural purposes.