A drought threatens the Italian breadbasket

Sentinel-3 OLCI FR & SLSTR RBT acquired on 06 July 2017 at 09:35:28 UTC
Sentinel-3 OLCI FR & SLSTR RBT acquired on 03 July 2022 at 09:33:59 UTC
Author(s): Sentinel Vision team, VisioTerra, France - svp@visioterra.fr
Keyword(s): Climate change, drought, agriculture, irrigation, salinisation, Italy
Fig. 1 - S3 OLCI (06.07.2017) - 2017 view. The Po valley faces its worst drought in 70 years with the Po’s levels 80% lower than normal.
2D view
The Po river flows for 652 km from west to east in northern Italy. The region that accounts for about 30% of the country’s agricultural production.
Fig. 2 - S3 OLCI (03.07.2022) - 2022 view. At least 30% of this year’s rice crop has already been lost.
2D view
Fig. 3 - S3 OLCI (06.07.2017 & 03.07.2022) - The soil moisture & vegetation index decreased due to the drought.
2D view 2D view 2D view 2D view
Now the region’s irrigation sources are being threatened by the salty Adriatic sea, which has entered a record 30.6 km into the Po river.
The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency or the European Union.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024, processed by VisioTerra.
More on European Commission space:
More on ESA: S-1 website S-2 website S-3 website
More on Copernicus program: Scihub portal Cophub portal Inthub portal Colhub portal
More on VisioTerra: Sentinel Vision Portal Envisat+ERS portal Swarm+GOCE portal CryoSat portal