Early flood detection using SAR images and remote sensing techniques-case study Kut city in Iraq

Abstract

Floods around the world are a major disaster in both rural and urban areas, but in urban areas impacts are most severe as many people lose their homes and property due to floods. In this study we will address the heavy rains that swept through the Wasit province and the heavy rain that descended from the mountains in Iran to Wasit province and led to floods, these floods were studied using radar images from ESA(European Space Agency) Sentinel-1 satellite before and after the floods on 3rd September, 2018 And November 26th of 2018 which is centered at latitudes 32.6844953 and longitudes 47.3953694 with a dual polarization capability (VV+VH), where the radar images are not affected by the poor weather conditions of clouds and rain day or night and have a capacity of 6-day revisit as compared to multi-spectral images (optical images) that depends on sunlight. All the required processing was carried out through the Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) and remote sensing techniques, the areas affected by the floods were calculated (1256.34 km;). The results obtained were compared with the results of international organizations such as Charter institute for Disaster management indicating a significant correlation with the results.