#MonitoringMonday – Rice fields in Italy

When we think of Italy, everyone thinks of pizza and pasta, but did you know that almost 50% of European rice production comes from Italy? Most of the rice is grown in the floodplain of the fertile Po Valley.

In today’s satellite image you can see one of these regions around the Po River Delta as a HVI (Healthy Vegetation Index) image. The HVI is a band combination to visualise the (healthy) status of the vegetation. Some fields are dark coloured, i.e. here the rice fields are currently flooded.