EO·Atlas
Flooding
Flooding monitoring maps where land is inundated, how long water persists, and which communities or assets need response attention.[1] SAR backscatter change detection is central to flood mapping because microwave observations work through cloud and darkness during storm response.[1][2] Operational flood maps commonly compare pre-event and post-event SAR acquisitions to detect open water and flood-induced surface change.[1][3] Flood depth is not directly observed by standard SAR extent products, so depth estimates usually need elevation data, hydraulic context, or LiDAR and DEM integration.[2] Radar altimetry adds river or lake water-level context, but nadir tracks do not map the full floodplain extent.[2]
What's available today
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- [1]NASA ARSET SAR for detecting and monitoring floods, sea ice, and subsidenceagency doc-2026-05-27
- [2]Progress in operational flood mapping using satellite SAR and airborne LiDAR datapeer reviewed2016-03-082026-05-27
- [3]Probabilistic mapping of flood-induced backscatter changes in SAR time seriespeer reviewed2017-03-012026-05-27
How to cite this page
Plain text
Flooding. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V., last reviewed 2026-05-27. https://eo-atlas.org/topics/flooding (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:topics:flooding,
title = {Flooding},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
year = {2026},
note = {Last reviewed 2026-05-27. CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/topics/flooding}
}