Mapping Paddy Rice Distribution and Cropping Intensity in South and Southeast Asia (1995–2024) at 30 m Resolution

This dataset provides 30 m multi-year composite maps of paddy rice distribution and cropping intensity across South and mainland Southeast Asia for four nominal reference years: 1995, 2005, 2015, and 2024. The products achieved overall accuracies of 83.74 %–87.60 % and showed strong agreement with official FAO statistics, with R² values exceeding 0.9 for all four periods. Because persistent cloud cover limited the availability of valid optical observations in northern India, the 2024 results for this region were generated using the Rice-Sentinel algorithm, which integrates Sentinel-1 SAR and optical data (Zhao et al., 2024, Remote Sensing of Environment, 315, 114460, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2024.114460). The corresponding optical-only results are also provided for comparison and reference.