Monitoring and Mapping Drought Effects on Crops by Geospatial and Remotely Sensed Data. A Critical Overview of Available Open Data Products

In recent years, climate change has exposed the vulnerabilities of Italian agriculture, with alternating periods of extreme events and prolonged droughts causing significant crop damage. Drought, linked to global warming, is a major threat, followed by floods, wildfires, and storms. Developing a forecasting system to map and mitigate these effects is crucial. This paper describes the first outcomes of the EO4DEMOC project, a collaborative effort between Università di Torino and Politecnico di Milano. The project aims to create a national prototype service that supports drought monitoring and management for the agro-forestry sector, leveraging Earth Observation (EO) and Geoinformation data provided by Copernicus and US missions. A central project element is creating a universal open-source database that aggregates, categorises, and makes accessible information from various open data sources. This database is designed to address the issue of data identification and aggregation, facilitating access and interpretation for non-EO experts. Moreover, categorisation with specific attributes and application fields allows users to filter data according to their needs, thus improving data selection and analysis efficiency, quickly identifying the most relevant information for their specific context, reducing the risk of misinterpretation and optimising the decision-making process. The creation of this database represents a significant advancement for the agro-forestry sector, as it allows for the systematisation of currently unconnected information, optimising data flow and supporting the use of artificial intelligence systems to produce maps of spatio-temporal crop anomalies, which are essential for both public institutions and the farming industry, allowing for more consistent water resource management and providing in-season estimates of potential economic loss. An example will showcase the role of open-source geospatial data in agriculture, providing new insights into the relationship between climate change and agricultural impacts and promoting greater environmental sustainability in farming. The ultimate goal is integrating satellite-based information with on-site meteorological networks, potentially enhancing Italian agriculture’s resilience to climate change. This integration will raise awareness among the scientific community, policymakers, stakeholders, and citizens about sustainable development and climate change adaptation and pave the way for a more sustainable and resilient future for Italian agriculture.