Information on flood inundation extent is important for understanding societal exposure, water storage volumes, flood wave attenuation, future flood hazard, and other variables. A number of organizations now provide flood inundation maps based on satellite remote sensing. These data products can efficiently and accurately provide the areal extent of a flood event, but do not provide floodwater depth, an important attribute for first responders and damage assessment. Here we present a new methodology and a GIS‐based tool, the Floodwater Depth Estimation Tool (FwDET), for estimating floodwater depth based solely on an inundation map and a digital elevation model (DEM). We compare the FwDET results against water depth maps derived from hydraulic simulation of two flood events, a large‐scale event for which we use medium resolution input layer (10 m) and a small‐scale event for which we use a high‐resolution (LiDAR; 1 m) input. Further testing is performed for two inundation maps with a number of challenging features that include a narrow valley, a large reservoir, and an urban setting. The results show FwDET can accurately calculate floodwater depth for diverse flooding scenarios but also leads to considerable bias in locations where the inundation extent does not align well with the DEM. In these locations, manual adjustment or higher spatial resolution input is required.
Flood Inundation and Depth Mapping Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Combined with High-Resolution Multispectral Imagery
The identification of flood hazards during emerging public safety crises such as hurricanes or flash floods is an invaluable tool for first responders and managers yet remains out of reach in any comprehensive sense when using traditional remote-sensing methods, due to cloud cover and other data-sourcing restrictions. While many remote-sensing techniques exist for floodwater identification and extraction, few studies demonstrate an up-to-day understanding with better techniques in isolating the spectral properties of floodwaters from collected data, which vary for each event. This study introduces a novel method for delineating near-real-time inundation flood extent and depth mapping for storm events, using an inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based multispectral remote-sensing platform, which was designed to be applicable for urban environments, under a wide range of atmospheric conditions. The methodology is demonstrated using an actual flooding-event—Hurricane Zeta during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. Referred to as the UAV and Floodwater Inundation and Depth Mapper (FIDM), the methodology consists of three major components, including aerial data collection, processing, and flood inundation (water surface extent) and depth mapping. The model results for inundation and depth were compared to a validation dataset and ground-truthing data, respectively. The results suggest that UAV-FIDM is able to predict inundation with a total error (sum of omission and commission errors) of 15.8% and produce flooding depth estimates that are accurate enough to be actionable to determine road closures for a real event.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10474129
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Hydrology
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 2306-5338
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 158
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract -
Inundation mapping is a critical task for damage assessment, emergency management, and prioritizing relief efforts during a flooding event. Remote sensing has been an effective tool for interpreting and analyzing water bodies and detecting floods over the past decades. In recent years, deep learning algorithms such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have demonstrated promising performance for remote sensing image classification for many applications, including inundation mapping. Unlike conventional algorithms, deep learning can learn features automatically from large datasets. This research aims to compare and investigate the performance of two state-of-the-art methods for 3D inundation mapping: a deep learning-based image analysis and a Geomorphic Flood Index (GFI). The first method, deep learning image analysis involves three steps: 1) image classification to delineate flood boundaries, 2) integrate the flood boundaries and topography data to create a three-dimensional (3D) water surface, and 3) compare the 3D water surface with pre-flood topography to estimate floodwater depth. The second method, i.e., GFI, involves three phases: 1) calculate a river basin morphological information, such as river height (hr) and elevation difference (H), 2) calibrate and measure GFI to delineate flood boundaries, and 3) calculate the coefficient parameter ( α ), and correct the value of hr to estimate inundation depth. The methods were implemented to generate 3D inundation maps over Princeville, North Carolina, United States during hurricane Matthew in 2016. The deep learning method demonstrated better performance with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.26 m for water depth. It also achieved about 98% in delineating the flood boundaries using UAV imagery. This approach is efficient in extracting and creating a 3D flood extent map at a different scale to support emergency response and recovery activities during a flood event.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Abstract. High-resolution remote sensing imagery has been increasingly used for flood applications. Different methods have been proposed for flood extent mapping from creating water index to image classification from high-resolution data. Among these methods, deep learning methods have shown promising results for flood extent extraction; however, these two-dimensional (2D) image classification methods cannot directly provide water level measurements. This paper presents an integrated approach to extract the flood extent in three-dimensional (3D) from UAV data by integrating 2D deep learning-based flood map and 3D cloud point extracted from a Structure from Motion (SFM) method. We fine-tuned a pretrained Visual Geometry Group 16 (VGG-16) based fully convolutional model to create a 2D inundation map. The 2D classified map was overlaid on the SfM-based 3D point cloud to create a 3D flood map. The floodwater depth was estimated by subtracting a pre-flood Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from the SfM-based DEM. The results show that the proposed method is efficient in creating a 3D flood extent map to support emergency response and recovery activates during a flood event.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Flood occurrence is increasing due to the expansion of urbanization and extreme weather like hurricanes; hence, research on methods of inundation monitoring and mapping has increased to reduce the severe impacts of flood disasters. This research studies and compares two methods for inundation depth estimation using UAV images and topographic data. The methods consist of three main stages: (1) extracting flooded areas and create 2D inundation polygons using deep learning; (2) reconstructing 3D water surface using the polygons and topographic data; and (3) deriving a water depth map using the 3D reconstructed water surface and a pre-flood DEM. The two methods are different at reconstructing the 3D water surface (stage 2). The first method uses structure from motion (SfM) for creating a point cloud of the area from overlapping UAV images, and the water polygons resulted from stage 1 is applied for water point cloud classification. While the second method reconstructs the water surface by intersecting the water polygons and a pre-flood DEM created using the pre-flood LiDAR data. We evaluate the proposed methods for inundation depth mapping over the Town of Princeville during a flooding event during Hurricane Matthew. The methods are compared and validated using the USGS gauge water level data acquired during the flood event. The RMSEs for water depth using the SfM method and integrated method based on deep learning and DEM were 0.34m and 0.26m, respectively.more » « less
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Floods are often associated with hurricanes making landfall. When tropical cyclones/hurricanes make landfall, they are usually accompanied by heavy rainfall and storm surges that inundate coastal areas. The worst natural disaster in the United States, in terms of loss of life and property damage, was caused by hurricane storm surges and their associated coastal flooding. To monitor coastal flooding in the areas affected by hurricanes, we used data from sensors aboard the operational Polar-orbiting and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. This study aims to apply a downscaling model to recent severe coastal flooding events caused by hurricanes. To demonstrate how high-resolution 3D flood mapping can be made from moderate-resolution operational satellite observations, the downscaling model was applied to the catastrophic coastal flooding in Florida due to Hurricane Ian and in New Orleans due to Hurricanes Ida and Laura. The floodwater fraction data derived from the SNPP/NOAA-20 VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) observations at the original 375 m resolution were input into the downscaling model to obtain 3D flooding information at 30 m resolution, including flooding extent, water surface level and water depth. Compared to a 2D flood extent map at the VIIRS’ original 375 m resolution, the downscaled 30 m floodwater depth maps, even when shown as 2D images, can provide more details about floodwater distribution, while 3D visualizations can demonstrate floodwater depth more clearly in relative to the terrain and provide a more direct perception of the inundation situations caused by hurricanes. The use of 3D visualization can help users clearly see floodwaters occurring over various types of terrain conditions, thus identifying a hazardous flood from non-hazardous flood types. Furthermore, 3D maps displaying floodwater depth may provide additional information for rescue efforts and damage assessments. The downscaling model can help enhance the capabilities of moderate-to-coarse resolution sensors, such as those used in operational weather satellites, flood detection and monitoring.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology10080158
