Inundación

The focus of this study was to thoroughly exploit the capability of very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery such as Ikonos and QuickBird for disaster mitigation. An efficient automated methodology that detects damage was implemented to derive the rich information available from VHR satellite imagery. Consequently, the detected results and the VHR satellite imagery are attractively presented through a fly-over animation and visualization. The aim is to assist the field-based damage estimation and to strengthen public awareness. The available Ikonos and QuickBird data captured after the Bam, Iran, earthquake in December 2003 was employed to demonstrate the competence of the automated detection algorithm and fly-over animation/visualization. These results are consistent with the field-based damage results.

Little is currently known about the potential role of satellite imagery for monitoring and assessing the recovery phase of the disaster management cycle. The impacts and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina provide a unique opportunity to explore recovery at a time when commercial high-resolution remote sensing platforms offer an optimal resolution for such studies. The spatial, spectral and temporal signatures of the recovery process are currently being explored based on field and imagery based observations along the Gulf of Mexico Coastline of the United States.
The work seeks to document and describe characteristics of the recovery process through time. A NHC Quick Response Field Grant supported field deployment to collect benchmark (9 month post-event) ‘ground truth’ datasets for informing the remote sensing analysis and validating results. During the nine day deployment within the Hurricane Katrina impact area, the field team documented a range of...

This study developed a rapid assessment algorithm for post-hurricane forest damage estimation using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements. The performance of five commonly used vegetation indices as post-hurricane forest damage indicators was investigated through statistical analysis. The Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII) was identified as the optimal damage indicator among these vegetation indices. An approach for detecting forest damage at a regional scale, without relying on ground inventory or sampling, was designed and validated. The validation showed that the relative change of pre- and post-hurricane NDII was linearly related to the damage severity estimated by the ground inventory with the coefficient of determination 0.79. This approach was applied to evaluate forest damage severity and the impacted region caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Severe flood events turned out to be the most devastating catastrophes for Europe’s population, economy and environment during the past decades. The total loss caused by the August 2002 flood is estimated to be 10 billion Euros for Germany alone. Due to their capability to present a synoptic view of the spatial extent of floods, remote sensing technology, and especially synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, have been successfully applied for flood mapping and monitoring applications. However, the quality and accuracy of the flood masks and derived flood parameters always depends on the scale and the geometric precision of the original data as well as on the classification accuracy of the derived data products. The incorporation of auxiliary information such as elevation data can help to improve the plausibility and reliability of the derived flood masks as well as higher level products. This paper presents methods to improve the matching of flood masks with...

The use of Earth Observation techniques in the context of hazard management issues has received growing importance in recent years. Due to global climate change the scientific community foresees an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods and windstorms. Specifically, floods already results in estimates of up to 25,000 annual deaths worldwide, extensive homelessness, disaster-induced disease, crop and livestock damage and other serious harm. The nearly allweather capacity constitutes the main advantage of SAR data above optical systems for mapping of flood events. The high resolution, the multi-polarization and multi-incidence angle capability of TerraSAR-X, its quick site access and receiving times open very interesting perspectives for flood mapping, assessment of damages after a hazard. TerraSAR-X data, coupled with the use of optical data and auxiliary data allows getting one step further in the development of...

A proto-type space-based disaster management system (DMS) has been organized with comprehensive database design, space-based near real-time monitoring/mapping tools, modelling framework, networking solutions and multi-agency interfaces. With the appropriate synthesis of these core elements, a system-definition of the frame-work of a DMS has been arrived at, in terms of developing a methodology towards damage assessment due to 1998 Brahmaputra floods. The limited validation experiments carried out in consultation with local level functionaries reveal that the experimental results on damage to agricultural crops due to floods are in conformity with field conditions. Still, there is a gap existing between the estimates arrived at and the estimates derived from conventional methods. It is herein that a concerted effort towards achieving absolute accuracy is called for. The conceived DMS ultimately aims at providing a holistic design and development of an information system...

Flooding happens mostly over the coastal region or low-lying land. It threatens the life of inhabitants, in addition to their property losses. Usually, the boundary of flooded region is determined with on site investigation, which is very difficult during flooding and even endangers the safety of field investigators. For a case of major flooding, on site investigation may take too many human and material resources before timely completion. Therefore, satellite remote sensing is a potential alternative for a fast and large-scale survey of flood region.

This study of delimiting the flood extent is through analyzing satellite images that were taken at different dates. For the case of flooding at Gangshan area after the typhoon Doug, we compared the satellite analysis against on site investigation and found that the extent of flooding matches each other. This result proves that satellite remote sensing is a viable method for quickly delimiting the extent of flooding...

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, remote sensing technology played a key role in assessing urban damage caused by windstorm, flood and storm surge. This paper provides an overview of techniques employed operationally damage assessment, presenting them within a spatially-tiered reconnaissance framework. Successfully implemented following disasters including the 2003 Bam earthquake and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the tiered reconnaissance system provides a theoretical framework for evaluating damage at regional (Tier 1), neighborhood (Tier 2) and per-building (Tier 3) scales. In the case of hurricane Katrina, regional activities included the acquisition and interpretation of PDV footage to provide near real-time multi-hazard impact assessments, and the use of Landsat to evaluate flood extent. At a neighborhood scale, NOAA aerial imagery was used to provide a severity ranking of wind damage and to assess storm surge effects along the Mississippi coast,...

Nepal, occupying the central part of the Hindu-Kush Himalayan belt covers an area of 147,181 square kilometers between India and China.About 6000 rivers and rivulets drain Nepal. Rugged topography, young geology and monsoon climate, all combine to produce high rate of runoff,erosion and sedimentation rendering the country highly vulnerable to water induced disasters and flood is one of the main recurring natural hazards. The Terai (plain area in the southern part) amounting to only 17% of the total area of the country is regarded as the granary of Nepal and the problems of flooding in this region are of utmost concern.The objective of this study is to integrate flood simulation model and remote sensing (RS) data with the available topographic and socioeconomic data in a geographic information system (GIS) environment for flood hazard mapping of Bagmati River in Terai region. Hydrologic model in combination with digital elevation model (DEM) is useful in delineating the...

Bangladesh suffered damage on account of the most catastrophic floods of 1987, 1988 and 1998, resulting in untold suffering of the people. This paper demonstrates the technique to develop a flood hazard map and a land development priority map for countermeasure against flood damage. To create the final products, flood hazard map and land development priority map, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data for the flood events of 1988, 1995 and 1998 were incorporated with Geographical Information System data of physiographic divisions, geologic divisions, land cover classification, elevation height, drainage network, administrative districts and population density. Flood-affected frequency and flood depth categories were estimated using NOAA AVHRR images. Special attention was paid to population density for the construction of the land development priority map, because highly dense populated areas...