CONTRIBUTION OF EARTH OBSERVATION DATA SUPPLIED BY THE NEW SATELLITE SENSORS TO FLOOD MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The risk of flooding due to runoff is a major concern in many areas around the globe and especially in Romania. In recent years river floods and associated landslides have occurred quite frequently in Romania, some affecting small isolated areas, but others affecting large areas of the national territory. The main objective of the NATO SfP project “Monitoring of extreme flood events in Romania and Hungary using EO data” is to improve the existing local operational flood hazard assessment and monitoring, using the functional facilities supplied by the GIS infolayers, in combination with Earth Observation (EO) data-derived information, Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and hydrological modelling. The study area is situated in the Crisul Alb - Crisul Negru - Kőrős transboundary basin, crossing the Romanian – Hungarian border. Orbital remote sensing can provide the information necessary for flood hazard and vulnerability assessment and mapping, which are directly used in the decision-making process. The EO data-derived information of the land cover/land use is important because it allows periodical updating and comparisons, and thus contributes to characterisation of the human presence and the vulnerability, as well as to the evaluation of the impact of the floods. In order to obtain high-level thematic products the data extracted from the satellite images must be integrated with other geo-information data (topographical, pedological, meteorological data) and hydrologic/hydraulic model outputs.