Flood Warnings, Flood Disaster Assessments, and Flood Hazard Reduction: The Roles of Orbital Remote Sensing

Abstract-Orbital remote sensing of the Earth is now poised to make three fundamental contributions towards reducing the detrimental effects of extreme floods. Effective Flood warning requires frequent (near-daily) radar observation of the Earth's surface through cloud cover. In contrast, both optical and radar wavelengths will increasingly be used for disaster assessment and hazard reduction. These latter tasks are accomplished, in part, by accurate mapping of flooded lands and commonly over periods of several days or more. We use radar scatterometer data from QuikSCAT to detect changes in surface water area and with global coverage every 2+ days. Also, MODIS, RADARSAT, and other higher spatial resolution data are used for flood mapping and other flood measurements. These records are preserved in a global flood hazard atlas a