Flood detection in rural areas using high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar images
David Mason and Javier Garcia-Pintado. Dept. of Meteorology, University of Reading.
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Flood extent delineation useful for – – Emergency flood relief management – Insurance purposes – Flood inundation model improvement
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SAR images used because all-weather day-night
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Floodwater generally appears dark in SAR
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Two scenarios – – Flood delineation using manually-determined SAR backscatter threshold – Automatic threshold calculation prior to delineation
Delineation using manual threshold
Automatic threshold calculation
80 70
Percentage
60 50
Misclassified water (%)
40
Misclassified non-water (%)
30
Total misclassified (%)
20 10 0 40
50
60
70
80
Object mean intensity threshold T
Minimum misclassification at T = 57.