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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ESSDD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Earth System Science Data Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ESSDD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1866-3591</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/essd-2025-711</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Mapping Paddy Rice Distribution and Cropping Intensity in South and Southeast Asia (1995&amp;ndash;2024) at 30 m Resolution</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhao</surname>
<given-names>Zizhang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Geli</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Dong</surname>
<given-names>Jinwei</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yang</surname>
<given-names>Jilin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Xiao</surname>
<given-names>Xiangming</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>21</day>
<month>01</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>24</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Zizhang Zhao et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-711/">This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-711/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-711/essd-2025-711.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-711/essd-2025-711.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>South and Southeast Asia, a major global hub for paddy rice cultivation, exhibits the highest rice cropping intensity worldwide due to its favourable hydrothermal conditions, and also has experienced considerable spatiotemporal changes due to climate change and anthropogenic activities. However, the absence of long-term spatial distribution and cropping intensity of paddy rice hinders effective agricultural and environmental management. This gap is particularly critical especially in the 21st century, with enhanced impacts from changing climate, water resources, and food trade pattern. Using all the available Landsat and Sentinel-2 archives, we refined a phenology-based algorithm to generate 30-m rice maps and cropping intensity across South and Southeast Asia for the years 1995, 2005, 2015, and 2024. The algorithm overcomes the challenge of detecting rice cropping intensity in long time-series and comprises three core steps: (1) identifying pixel-level rice phenological peaks using an enhanced peak detection method, thereby defining potential transplanting windows and minimizing monsoon-induced cloud and precipitation interference; (2) detecting paddy flooding signals and delineating rice cultivation areas based on phenological rules derived from the relationship between the Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI); (3) determining rice cropping intensity according to the number of valid crop peaks and associated flooding signals within a single year. The resulting maps were validated using 23,396 samples collectively derived from a field photo library, visual interpretation of Sentinel-1/2 satellite imagery, and a sample migration algorithm. Across the four periods, the maps achieved overall accuracies ranging from 83 % to 87 %. In addition, the resultant products were compared with existing regional and period-specific rice datasets (e.g., NESEA-RICE10 and Open-SEA-Rice-10) for further evaluation. The comparisons demonstrated that the refined approach achieved higher accuracy and robustness in mapping both rice distribution and cropping intensity, whereas the existing products performed well only in partial environments. When compared with the FAO official statistics for South and mainland Southeast Asian countries, the derived maps yielded R&amp;sup2; values exceeding 0.9. This dataset holds great potential for applications such as methane emission estimation, water resource management, and crop yield monitoring, thereby supporting sustainable agricultural practices and policy development in the region.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="24"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China</funding-source>
<award-id>42171115</award-id>
<award-id>42271375</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Chinese Universities Scientific Fund</funding-source>
<award-id>15054005</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>National Key Research and Development Program of China</funding-source>
<award-id>2022YFF0802400</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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