Floods Toolkit

With approximately 40% of the world's population living within 100 kilometers (km) of the coast, floods affect more people worldwide than any other type of natural disaster. The number and frequency of flooding events is increasing in part due to climate change with coastal and low-lying areas being particularly vulnerable due to years of relative sea level increases and an increase in extreme weather events.

Remote sensing data can be used to identify the vulnerability, exposure, and flooding risk of communities as well as help mitigate the social and economic impacts. NASA Earth observations can help scientists, application-based users, and decision makers understand factors contributing to flood events, respond to events in near real-time, and map flood inundation and its impacts post-event. This toolkit is designed to support this research by providing easy access to data and other resources.

Discover and Visualize Data

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visualize data
Visualization of the Joint NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Corrected Reflectance, Bands 11-I2-I1 in Worldview. NASA’s EOSDIS Worldview imagery mapping and visualization application provides the capability to interactively browse global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers.
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rainfall

Rainfall

Any place where rain falls is susceptible to flooding. Measuring rainfall helps advance our understanding of Earth's water cycle, improving forecasts of extreme events such as flooding.

Webinars

Data Tutorials/Recipes

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snow

Snow Cover and Snow Water Equivalent

Both seasonal and long-term changes to snow cover can impact the amount of water flowing through watersheds, resulting in a water deficit or a water abundance. The amount of snow pack and timing of snow melt affects flood risk.

Snow Cover

Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)

Webinars

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soil moisture

Soil Moisture

Understanding soil moisture aids in improving weather forecasts and predicting floods. Soil moisture controls the amount of water that can infiltrate the ground, replenish our aquifers, or contribute to excess runoff.

Webinars

Data Tutorials/Recipes

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topography

Topography

Knowing local topography is essential for disaster managers and emergency management professionals seeking to assess an area's risk level; knowing the height at which communities sit in relation to flood waters determines the exposure.

Data Recipes/Tutorials

Flood Inundation with Land Surface Reflectance

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inundation

Understanding and mapping flood inundation is critical to assessing the scope of the disaster, where the damage is greatest, and where to respond with relief efforts.

Webinars

Data Tutorials/Recipes

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amazon

Flood Inundation with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

Understanding and mapping flood inundation is critical to assessing the scope of the disaster, where the damage is greatest, and where to respond with relief efforts. The wavelengths used for creating SAR imagery can penetrate clouds, smoke, soil, ice, and tree canopies, meaning that high-relief SAR imagery can be created day or night, rain or shine. SAR imagery can be used to assess post-storm flood and storm-surge damage along with shoreline changes.

Webinars

Data Tutorials/Recipes

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