Satellite-based investigation of flood-affected rice cultivation areas in Chao Phraya River Delta,Thailand

The occurrence of catastrophic floods in Thailand in 2011 caused significant damage to rice agriculture. This study investigated flood-affected rice cultivation areas in the Chao Phraya River Delta (CRD) rice bowl, Thailand using time-series moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The data were processed for 2008 (normal flood year) and 2011, comprising four main steps: (1) data pre-processing to construct time-series MODIS vegetation indices (VIs), to filter noise from the time-series VIs by the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), and to mask out non-agricultural areas in respect to water-related cropping areas; (2) flood-affected area classification using the unsupervised linear mixture model (ULMM); (3) rice crop classification using the support vector machines (SVM); and (4) accuracy assessment of flood and rice crop mapping results. The comparisons between the flood mapping results and the ground reference data indicated an overall accuracy of 97.9% and Kappa coefficient of 0.62 achieved for 2008, and 95.7% and 0.77 for 2011, respectively. These results were reaffirmed by close agreement (R² > 0.8) between comparisons of the two datasets at the provincial level. The crop mapping results compared with the ground reference data revealed that the overall accuracies and Kappa coefficients obtained for 2008 were 88.5% and 0.82, and for 2011 were 84.1% and 0.76, respectively. A strong correlation was also found between MODIS-derived rice area and rice area statistics at the provincial level (R² > 0.7). Rice crop maps overlaid on the flood-affected area maps showed that approximately 16.8% of the rice cultivation area was affected by floods in 2011 compared to 4.9% in 2008. A majority of the flood-expanded area was observed for the double-cropped rice (10.5%), probably due to flood-induced effects to the autumn–summer and rainy season crops. Information achieved from this study could be useful for agricultural planners to mitigate possible impacts of floods on rice production.     

Flood inundation mapping in a part of Mahanadi river basin

Man has had to live with floods since the very inception of his existence. Fury of flood causes heavy damages to both life and property. Accurate flood inundation data is one of the essential requirements for effective management of flood problem. Remote Sensing methods are well suited for acquiring flood inundation data because of synoptic, repetitive coverage of the satellite data. This paper briefs on an attempt to map flood inundated areas in a part of Mahanadi river basin using remote sensing data.     

Management and development of river basins in north bengal using remote sensing techniques

River basin management and development are most important for utilising and conserving the water resources in any region where the average annual rainfall is highly fluctuating, the North Bengal is one of such region. Though there are a large number of rivers having a large catchment area in the hills and carry a huge amount of water during rainy season but they are completely dry in winter and summer. The upper part of majority of river basins arc highly sensitive to water erosion and land slides due to deforestation, intensive cultivation, increased settlements in sloping and erosion prone areas. So, floods in the rainy season and droughts in summer months are frequent features in North Bengal. In view of this proper management and effective conservation of land and water resources is necessary to develop the region. An integrated river basin management consisting soil conservation, afforestation, flood control, and adoption of suitable cropping pattern is essential for economic development of North Bengal.     

Temporal change detection in river courses and flood plains in an arid environment through satellite remote sensing

Temporal changes in ephemeral river courses and associated flood plains, which could not be detected by Landsat MSS due to its poor spatial resolution of 80m, have been identified and mapped within 10% accuracy by Landsat TM False colour composite because of its higher spectral and spatial resolution of 30 m. Over a period of 28 years (1958–86) the river courses widened upto 1.8 times through bank erosion due to the recurring flash floods. The flash floods have also caused morphological, soil fertility and landuse changes in the associated flood plains, which could also be monitored by the Landsat TM.     

Space based disaster management of 2008 Kosi floods,North Bihar,India

One of the most important elements in flood disaster management is the availability of timely information for taking decisions and actions by the authorities. During the August 18, 2008 Kosi floods which impacted India and Nepal and affected more than three million people, aero-space technology proved to be a critical input for providing vital information on flood inundation. The satellite based flood inundation maps were extensively used for identifying marooned villages, submerged roads and railway tracks and carrying out the relief and rescue operations by the state agencies. Decision Support Centre (DSC) at National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) kept a constant watch on the flood situation. More than 200 flood inundation maps, using about 30 satellite datasets were generated and provided in near real time mode to the state agencies during August to October, 2008. DSC efforts were primarily focused in providing an overall picture of the flood situation in a short span of time to the state agencies. The present paper discusses about the operational use of remote sensing technology for near real time flood mapping, monitoring of Kosi floods and the satellite based observations made for the Kosi river breach.     

基于多源空间数据的河道水域变化监测方法研究

近年来,随着经济社会的快速发展,河道水域占用情况日益增多,严重影响河道防洪、排涝等正常水域功能的发挥。以浙江省省级河道为例,以覆盖浙江全省的高分辨率航片、省级基础地理信息数据等多源空间数据为基础,结合测绘和水利标准,提出基于多源空间数据的河道水域变化监测方法。方法充分利用高精度的基础测绘空间数据,保证成果的可靠性,同时符合水利部门的规定,能够满足水利部门的实际需要。研究结果表明,2008-2012年间,浙江省省级河道水域减少情况严重,主要减少类型为建设用地。方法为水利部门全面、客观地掌握水域的无序占用情况提供了一种有效手段。     

Flash flood damage mapping in arid environment using satellite remote sensing — A case study of pali region

In the Bali and Pali tehsils of Pali district of western Rajasthan, which were affected by floods during the period August 6–10, 1990, using IRS-1A LISS-1 data of post-flood and ground truth, seven flood damage categories viz. (1) loss of bund and slight sheet erosion (2) loss of bunds, severe sheet and rill erosion and few gullies (3) deep gullies (4) water inundated area (5) moderate scouring and sand casting (6) severe scouring and sand casting and (7) river widening and bank cutting have been mapped. Out of seven, four categories could be mapped visually on the raw FCC (post-flood) and remaining three categories could be separated out from the digitally generated FCC. The PC₂ was found to contain maximum information on soil erosion/deposition and inundated areas. Density-slicing of band-ratioed output gave maximum information on newly formed channels, water bodies and flow direction. The damage caused to be human beings, animals, agricultural lands, engineering structure by different type of flood hazards under various geomorphic flood zone and comparison between pre-flood and post-flood product has been highlighted.     

Forest cover monitoring using remote sensing and GIS — A case study in Dhaulkhand range of Rajaji National Park,Uttar pradesh

Rajaji National Park in U.P. is a protected area where large number of nomad population live within the park area. Their dependence on the forest for cattle rearing and firewood has caused degradation of the forests. Proximity to settlements outside the park further adds to the problems. In the present study, forest cover and river, bed changes have been attempted by using temporal aerospace data of the year 1960 and 1993. Subsequently, PAMAP GIS package has been used for the change detection analysis. The study indicates that the land cover changes are mainly due to biotic factors. Some of the important changes in forest cover are: (i) transformation of mixed forest to scrub forest in 67 ha (ii) the sal mixed and mixed sal forest categories have replaced sal forest in 262 ha (iii) significant increase in forest plantation i.e. 2075 ha in the year 1960 to 3793 ha in 1993 (iv) eighteen times increase in Chirpine area, it increased from 13 ha in 1960 to 230 ha in 1993. The land cover changes in 6663 ha (45%) out of 14962 ha of the study area. The consequential changes in the river beds due to the change in the forest cover was also analyzed. During this period river beds with boulders have increased by 87 ha. These river bed changes include lengthening and broadening of river and change in river course.     

A method for monthly mapping of wet and dry snow using Sentinel-1 and MODIS: Application to a Himalayan river basin

Satellite Remote Sensing, with both optical and SAR instruments, can provide distributed observations of snow cover over extended and inaccessible areas. Both instruments are complementary, but there have been limited attempts at combining their measurements. We describe a novel approach to produce monthly maps of dry and wet snow areas through application of data fusion techniques to MODIS fractional snow cover and Sentinel-1 wet snow mask, facilitated by Google Earth Engine. The method is demonstrated in a 55,000 km² river basin in the Indian Himalayan region over a period of ∼2.5 years, although it can be applied to any areas of the world where Sentinel-1 data are routinely available. The typical underestimation of wet snow area by SAR is corrected using a digital elevation model to estimate the average melting altitude. We also present an empirical model to derive the fractional cover of wet snow from Sentinel-1. Finally, we demonstrate that Sentinel-1 effectively complements MODIS as it highlights a snowmelt phase which occurs with a decrease in snow depth but no/little decrease in snowpack area. Further developments are now needed to incorporate these high resolution observations of snow areas as inputs to hydrological models for better runoff analysis and improved management of water resources and flood risk.     

A novel approach to leveraging social media for rapid flood mapping: a case study of the 2015 South Carolina floods

Rapid flood mapping is critical for local authorities and emergency responders to identify areas in need of immediate attention. However, traditional data collection practices such as remote sensing and field surveying often fail to offer timely information during or right after a flooding event. Social media such as Twitter have emerged as a new data source for disaster management and flood mapping. Using the 2015 South Carolina floods as the study case, this paper introduces a novel approach to mapping the flood in near real time by leveraging Twitter data in geospatial processes. Specifically, in this study, we first analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of flood-related tweets using quantitative methods to better understand how Twitter activity is related to flood phenomena. Then, a kernel-based flood mapping model was developed to map the flooding possibility for the study area based on the water height points derived from tweets and stream gauges. The identified patterns of Twitter activity were used to assign the weights of flood model parameters. The feasibility and accuracy of the model was evaluated by comparing the model output with official inundation maps. Results show that the proposed approach could provide a consistent and comparable estimation of the flood situation in near real time, which is essential for improving the situational awareness during a flooding event to support decision-making.     

航测立体采集在水库河流测量中的应用

自古以来,水库和河流等水利工程就是一件关系着国计民生的大事。水库的库容及水库的调度,河流的河道情况,关系到防洪安全、水库区及河流两岸居民的居住环境的变化和蓄水兴利。本文介绍了大中型水库库区范围内,以及沿河两岸地物、地貌的航空摄影的内业采集及采集过程中所遇到的困难以及解决办法。     

Assessment of an ASTER-generated DEM for 2D hydrodynamic flood modeling

Flood modeling often provides inputs to flood hazard management. In the present work we studied the flooding characteristics in the data scarce region of the Lake Tana basin at the source of the Blue Nile River. The study required to integrate remote sensing, GIS with a two-dimensional (2D) module of the SOBEK flood model. The resolution of the topographic data in many areas, such as the Lake Tana region, is commonly too poor to support detailed 2D hydrodynamic modeling. To overcome such limitations, we used a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) which was generated from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) image. A GIS procedure is developed to reconstruct the river terrain and channel bathymetry. The results revealed that a representation of the river terrain largely affects the simulated flood characteristics. Simulations indicate that effects of Lake Tana water levels propagate up to 13 km along the Ribb River. We conclude that a 15 m resolution ASTER DEM can serve as an input to detailed 2D hydrodynamic modeling in data scarce regions. However, for this purpose it is necessary to accurately reconstruct the river terrain geometry and flood plain topography based on ground observations by means of a river terrain model.     

Flood risk analysis in the Kosi river basin, north Bihar using multi-parametric approach of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

The Kosi river in north Bihar plains, eastern India presents a challenge in terms of long and recurring flood hazard. Despite a long history of flood control management in the basin for more than 5 decades, the river continues to bring a lot of misery through extensive flooding. This paper revisits the flooding problem in the Kosi river basin and presents an in-depth analysis of flood hydrology. We integrate the hydrological analysis with a GIS-based flood risk mapping in parts of the basin. Typical hydrological characteristics of the Kosi river include very high discharge variability, and high sediment flux from an uplifting hinterland. Annual peak discharges often exceed the mean annual flood and the low-lying tracts of the alluvial plains are extensively inundated year after year. Our flood risk analysis follows a multi-parametric approach using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and integrates geomorphological, land cover, topographic and social (population density) parameters to propose a Flood Risk Index (FRI). The flood risk map is validated with long-term inundation maps and offers a cost-effective solution for planning mitigation measures in flood-prone areas.     

遥感与水问题

介绍了10 年来遥感技术在水资源领域的应用成果,特别是在洪涝灾害监测、水资源与水环境调查、旱情监测、土壤侵蚀调查、河口、河道、湖泊和水库泥沙淤积调查及大型工程选址和环境效益评估等领域的主要成就,并对未来遥感技术在相关领域的应用与开发提出了建议。     

Monitoring Urban Landscape Dynamics Over Delhi (India) Using Remote Sensing (1998–2011) Inputs

Urbanization is increasingly becoming a widespread phenomenon at all scales of development around the globe. Be it developing or developed nations, all are witnessing urbanization at very high pace. In order to study its impacts, various methodologies and techniques are being implemented to measure growth of urban extents over spatial and temporal domains. But urbanization being a very dynamic phenomenon has been facing ambiguities regarding methods to study its dynamism. This paper aims at quantifying urban expansion in Delhi, the capital city of India. The process has been studied using urban land cover pattern derived from Landsat TM/ETM satellite data for two decades (1998–2011). These maps show that built-up increased by 417 ha in first time period (1998–2003) and 6,633 ha during next period (2003–2011) of study. For quantification of metrics for urban expansion, the Urban Landscape Analysis Tool (ULAT) was employed. Land cover mapping was done with accuracy of 92.67 %, 93.3 % and 96 % respectively for years 1998, 2003 and 2011. Three major land covers classes mapped are; (i) built-up, (ii) water and (iii) other or non-built-up. The maps were then utilized to extract degree of urbanization based on spatial density of built-up area consisting of seven classes, (i) Urban built-up, (ii) Suburban built-up,(iii) Rural built-up, (iv) Urbanized open land, (v) Captured open land, (vi) Rural open land and (vii) Water. These classes were demarcated based on the urbanness of cells. Similarly urban footprint maps were generated. The two time maps were compared to qualitatively and quantitatively capture the dynamics of urban expansion in the city. Along with urbanized area and urban footprint maps, the new development areas during the study time periods were also identified. The new development areas consisted of three major categories of developments, (i) infill, (ii) extension and (iii) leapfrog.     

Moraine-Dammed Lakes study in the chenab and The Satluj River Basins using IRS data

Moraine-dammed lakes are normally formed near glacier terminus. These lakes can burst due to excessive melting and can cause floods in the valleys. Many such floods have been reported in the Himalayas and other parts of the World. In this paper, an inventory of these lakes in the Satluj and the Chenab basins has been reported. During the investigation, 22 lakes in the Satluj and 31 lakes in the Chenab basin were mapped. In the Chenab basin, two lakes are of very large size, their areal extent is 105 and 55 ha, located in toposheet number 52 HI 1 and 52H02, respectively. These lakes were selected for detail monitoring. The lake near the Geepang glacier, is located in toposheet number 52H 02 and its area was 27 ha in 1976. Using the satellite data, areal extent of the lake was monitored. The lake area was almost doubled to 55 ha in 2001. This suggested that, lake size is constantly increasing and it can cause outburst flood. The maximum possible depth of lake was estimated by taking the average difference of maximum and minimum height of moraine dam from the Survey of India toposheet. By considering the average depth, the volume of the lake water and the instantaneous discharge of 350 mVsec were estimated. This is large discharge for a small stream like the Geepang Gath and it can damage many civilian and defense establishments. Therefore, further detail field investigations of this lake are needed to assess threat potential and to develop strategy to avoid this flash flood.     

传感网支持下的洪涝事件过程监测与准实时服务方法及验证

洪涝过程探测与准实时服务对于保障人民生命和财产安全意义重大。通常洪涝探测仅关注洪涝断面/平均状态,缺乏对洪涝从发生、发展乃至最后结束的全过程的整体认知,且洪涝探测和服务被动滞后。本文制定洪涝过程探测规则,改进水位预测模型,并将其作为理论基础,与传感网信息模型和服务接口相结合,提出了洪涝过程动态探测与准实时服务(process-based flood detection and service,PFD&S)方法。以PFD&S方法为基础,设计并开发了PFD&S原型系统,该系统由传感器层、数据接入层、洪涝探测层和用户交互层4层组成,且具备传感器数据发布和洪涝事件订阅两种使用模式。文中以2016年夏季发生在黄汉流域的洪涝事件为例,对PFD&S方法的可行性和有效性进行验证。结果表明,PFD&S方法和系统能够精准判断洪涝事件所处阶段,并根据不同阶段的需求提供水位预测、洪涝预警或洪涝信息统计等服务,且方法具备准实时性和可扩展性特征。     

Mapping floods due to Hurricane Sandy using NPP VIIRS and ATMS data and geotagged Flickr imagery

In this study, we present an approach to estimate the extent of large-scale coastal floods caused by Hurricane Sandy using passive optical and microwave remote sensing data. The approach estimates the water fraction from coarse-resolution VIIRS and ATMS data through mixed-pixel linear decomposition. Based on the water fraction difference, using the physical characteristics of water inundation in a basin, the flood map derived from the coarse-resolution VIIRS and ATMS measurements was extrapolated to a higher spatial resolution of 30 m using topographic information. It is found that flood map derived from VIIRS shows less inundated area than the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood map and the ground observations. The bias was mainly caused by the time difference in observations. This is because VIIRS can only detect flood under clear conditions, while we can only find some clear-sky data around the New York area on 4 November 2012, when most flooding water already receded. Meanwhile, microwave measurements can penetrate through clouds and sense surface water bodies under clear-or-cloudy conditions. We therefore developed a new method to derive flood maps from passive microwave ATMS observations. To evaluate the flood mapping method, the corresponding ground observations and the FEMA storm surge flooding (SSF) products are used. The results show there was good agreement between our ATMS and the FEMA SSF flood areas, with a correlation of 0.95. Furthermore, we compared our results to geotagged Flickr contributions reporting flooding, and found that 95% of these Flickr reports were distributed within the ATMS-derived flood area, supporting the argument that such crowd-generated content can be valuable for remote sensing operations. Overall, the methodology presented in this paper was able to produce high-quality and high-resolution flood maps over large-scale coastal areas.     

Assessment of land degradation hazards,etah district,uttar pradesh using landsat data

To understand the nature of land degradation and factors responsible for it, investigations were carried out in Etah district with an area of 4.45 lakh hectares. For identification of soil/land degradation problems, multidate Landsat, TM spectral bands and FCC were used. It is observed that salt-affected soils are sharply depicted by light and dark gray mixed tone on band 3, while they are not clear on band 4. Flood plain and waterlogged soils are clearly observed on band 4. Band 6 (10.3 – 12.5 µm) helps in separation of broad zones of coarse and fine-textured soils, active flood plain of rivers, and eroded and gullied lands. The confusion between coarse-textured droughty soils and salt-affected areas in TM FCC (2, 3, 4) could be eliminated by use of band-6 data in combination with FCC. For delineation of problematic areas, two approaches were followed viz. (i) physiographic approach, and (ii) direct approach. In the physiographic approach landscape map associated with image characteristics was prepared. Further the image interpretation units were interpreted for land degradation hazards. With this approach physiography and soil relationship and the degradation problems vis-a-vis soil units could be established and ameliorative measures as per soil condition can be suggested. In direct approach, the problematic areas as per predetermined key were demarcated. Out of 4.45 lakh ha of the area, 1.99 lakh ha is affected by various soil degradation problems, like droughty soils, flooding hazard and salinity and alkalinity which cover 22.1%, 50.0% and 27.9%, respectively. To study the distribution of a salt-affected lands, major physiographic boundaries were superimposed over the land degradation map prepared by direct approach. It is observed that 81.5% of the salt-affected areas lie in the old alluvial plain while 18.5% is in recent flood plain.     

A MODIS-based automated flood monitoring system for southeast asia

Flood disasters in Southeast Asia result in significant loss of life and economic damage. Remote sensing information systems designed to spatially and temporally monitor floods can help governments and international agencies formulate effective disaster response strategies during a flood and ultimately alleviate impacts to population, infrastructure, and agriculture. Recent destructive flood events in the Lower Mekong River Basin occurred in 2000, 2011, 2013, and 2016 (http://ffw.mrcmekong.org/historical_rec.htm, April 24, 2017).The large spatial distribution of flooded areas and lack of proper gauge data in the region makes accurate monitoring and assessment of impacts of floods difficult. Here, we discuss the utility of applying satellite-based Earth observations for improving flood inundation monitoring over the flood-prone Lower Mekong River Basin. We present a methodology for determining near real-time surface water extent associated with current and historic flood events by training surface water classifiers from 8-day, 250-m Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data spanning the length of the MODIS satellite record. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) signature of permanent water bodies (MOD44W; Carroll et al., 2009) is used to train surface water classifiers which are applied to a time period of interest. From this, an operational nowcast flood detection component is produced using twice daily imagery acquired at 3-h latency which performs image compositing routines to minimize cloud cover. Case studies and accuracy assessments against radar-based observations for historic flood events are presented. The customizable system has been transferred to regional organizations and near real-time derived surface water products are made available through a web interface platform. Results highlight the potential of near real-time observation and impact assessment systems to serve as effective decision support tools for governments, international agencies, and disaster responders.