Flood Mapping in Urban and Vegetated Areas

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing number of Earth Observation (EO) satellites in orbit, with various modalities and frequencies, there has been a large increase in the capability to extract information on the surface changes with high spatial and temporal resolution. For the same geographical area, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical data are now easily and, in some cases, freely available. For instance, the Copernicus Sentinel-1/2 satellites systematically acquire microwave and optical images of Earth. Emergency response services are potentially benefitting most from this huge amount of available data, because they require timely and frequent information about areas affected by damages.

Floods are the most frequent natural disasters in the world and the costliest in terms of economic losses. Mapping flood extent is fundamental to ascertain the damage and for relief organizations. SAR and optical systems, with their peculiar characteristics, represent powerful tools to monitor floods thanks to the very high spatial resolution of the new generation of sensors and the short revisit time of the present and future satellite constellations. However, mapping flooded vegetated and urban areas still represents a challenging problem. The development of new efficient algorithms and methods to tackle this issue is needed.

This Special Issue will focus on newly developed methods for the identification of floodwater in urban areas and on the presence of vegetation using remote sensing data. In particular, the submission of articles exploring the synergy between the new EO data and hydrodynamic models are highly encouraged. With regard to SAR data, studies using polarimetric and/or interferometric data are also solicited for this Special Issue.

Dr. Marco Chini
Dr. Luca Pulvirenti
Guest Editors

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