Distinguishing between hazardous flooding and non-hazardous agronomic inundation in irrigated rice fields: A case study from West Java

Cropping schedules in irrigated rice fields are often affected by the flooding. All rice growing stages, fallow, transplanting, harvesting, may occur in irrigated rice fields with complex cropping patterns. This research aims to distinguish between rice fields with agronomic inundation and rice fields with flooding in irrigated rice fields in northern districts of West Java using time-series MODIS imageries. The former is rice fields with normal cropping practices, while the latter is rice fields suffering disruptions from the adverse event. It is assumed that flooding delays the planting dates, leading to other adverse events in irrigated rice fields. The paper argues that the direct use of a particular vegetation index (e.g., EVI ≤ 0.1) may not sufficient to detect hazardous flooding in irrigated rice fields with complex cropping patterns. The paper proposed the incorporation of duration of land preparation and transplanting activities to EVI ≤ 0.1 distinguish between hazardous flooding and non-hazardous agronomic inundation in irrigated rice fields