Interlinked Dynamics of Rice Cultivation Intensity and Ground Subsidence: Spatio‐Temporal Insights Into Water Resource Implications From Multi‐Year Spaceborne SAR Analysis

Abstract Sustainable rice cultivation is vital to meet global food demands, particularly in regions relying on groundwater for irrigation. Over‐pumping, however, can cause significant ground subsidence, threatening both infrastructure and agricultural sustainability. This study investigates the interaction between rice cultivation intensity and ground subsidence using spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data over an eight‐year period (2016–2023) in Taiwan's rice‐producing counties. We employed polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) decomposition to estimate phenology‐based agricultural intensity and time‐series interferometric SAR to detect ground subsidence. This approach overcomes limitations of field surveys, enabling automated, time‐series crop monitoring. Our analysis found that PolSAR‐derived entropy reliably depicts agricultural intensity, while conventional intensity‐based cross‐ratio methods are more prone to noise. Through spatial statistics‐driven cluster analysis, interannually consistent agricultural hotspots were identified, demonstrating spatial heterogeneity and sensitivity to drought events. Importantly, the spatio‐temporal correlation analysis revealed no significant statistical relationship between agricultural hotspots and ground subsidence zones. This challenges the traditional presumption that intensive agricultural water use directly exacerbates ground subsidence, suggesting that excluding farmlands from subsiding zones may be unjustified. Instead, the findings underscore the need for comprehensive surveys of groundwater wells and the implementation of smart water management strategies. Our study demonstrates the potential of SAR‐based monitoring for dynamic environmental assessments, offering a computationally efficient alternative for tracking crop phenology and land deformation. These insights contribute to the urgent global need for evidence‐based water resource management and adaptive land use policies, while illustrating the broader applicability of spaceborne SAR in sustainable agricultural and environmental planning.