Lessons learned from flood monitoring and flood damage assessment by space remote sensing Case Study: 2019 Floods in Iran Omid Shekoofa Iranian Space Research Center (ISRC) 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 1 Outline ❑ Introduction to ISRC ❑ Overview on March 2019 Flood ❑ Flood Monitoring/Management by Space Remote Sensing ❑ Flood Damage Assessment in Agriculture ❑ Conclusion 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 2 Iranian Space Research Center (ISRC) ❑ Founded in 2012, affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of ICT ❑ Headquarter is located in Tehran, 6 branches are located in 4 big cities ❑ Developing space technologies and space systems for domestic needs in civil and peaceful applications 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 3 News News Agency Tasnim province, Iran, March 22, 2019. 2019. March 22, province, Iran, Golestan What Happened During March to May 2019 in Iran? 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 4 Iran Flood 2019 Overview ❑ Widespread flash flood happened in many parts of Iran from March 19 to May 1 ❑ It lasted over 5 weeks including 3 waves of heavy rains and floods ❑ The worst flooding in 70 years, affected 25 of 31 provinces ❑ 78 persons died and more than 1170 injured 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 5 Flood-Stricken Areas Most severely flood hit Golestan, Khuzestan and Lorestan, Deadliest happened in Fars 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 6 Flood Monitoring/Management by Space Remote Sensing 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 7 The Summary of What We Have Done! Radar data and Sharing the Generated Optical Images Generating Flooded Maps • Find/Download/Process/A Area Maps • Officially nalysis • Using social media Snow Cover Map Change Detection Check & Monitoring • Change in snow cover Maps • Ground • Weather forecast • Flood Movement checks/Reports/Feedback prediction Warnings and Alerts 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 8 Flood Map Generating Timetable ❑ Daily timetable of the available satellites pass over the flood areas was prepared ❑ In Golestan Province and due to the clouds radar data and images were processed for the first time Spatial Image Type Areas Date Resolution Optical Radar Golestan Province Gomishan County Aq-Qala County Gomishan County Aq-Qala County 20 m - Sentinel-1 2019-3-23 Kurdkoy County Gorgan County Bandar Torkman County Gonbad Kavoos County 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 9 Flood Change Maps Image Type Spatial Place Map Description Date Resolution [m] Optical Radar Golestan Province Changes in Flood Area 20 - Sentinel-1 2019-3-24 Gomishan County Flood Area Aq-Qala County Flood Area 20 - Sentinel-1 2019-3-29 Qara-Su County Flood Area Golestan Province Changes in Water Basins Golestan Province Changes in Flood Area 300 Sentinel-3 - 2019-4-1 Golestan Province Changes in Snow Cover Aq-Qala County Flood Area Gomishan County Flood Area 10 Sentinel-2 - 2019-4-5 Qara-Su County Flood Area Golestan Province Changes in Snow Cover 300 Sentinel-3 - 2019-4-5 Golestan Province Changes in Snow Cover 300 Sentinel-3 - 2019-4-7 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 10 Generated Maps 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 11 Flood Area Changes-Khuzestan 29% increase in the flood area in one Day 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 12 Flood Area Changes-Khuzestan-2 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 13 Flood Path Prediction ❑ The flood flow and pathway was predicted in different areas ❑ The cities, towns and villages in the flood path were determined ❑ On-time alerts helped the flood management authorities to prevent larger damages 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 14 Identifying Damaged Roads 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 15 Snow Cover and its Melting ❑ Comparing the snow cover in Golestan on March 13 and March 27 showed 350% of increase. ❑ The average temperature was forecasted to rise about 10 C in a few days ❑ The huge amount of melted snow lead to increase the level of flood in west Golestan rapidly 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 16 Social Media as the Sharing Platform ❑ Due to the national holidays and in the absence of the official/conventional medias we had to find the way for sharing data and maps ❑ Using of social networks as the platform for sharing the generated maps was a kind of taboo-breaking 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 17 Locating the Flooded Small Villages Sharing precise location of the stricken small villages and residences with help & rescue groups via kmz & kml files 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 18 Flood Damage Assessment 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 19 Post-Flood Damage Assessment ❑ The primary damage assessments carried out and announced by different organizations were different and mostly not in accordance with the expectations. ❑ Because of ISRC backgrounds in precision agriculture, it was assigned to flood damage assessment in agriculture by ministry of internal affaires. Geo-location of the Field real acreage Field boundaries registered points for comparison with extraction each field declared area Flood damage Cultivation assessment and assessment and Field overlap check verification verification 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 20 Preparing Field Cadastral Maps ❑ Acquisition of archived satellite images with 60 cm spatial resolution ❑ Field boundary extraction for pre- and post- flood No damage ❑ Determining the flood stricken area Low-damage Medium-damage ❑ Defining a margin for the affected area High-damage 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 21 Agricultural & Non-Agricultural Areas ❑ Removing non-agricultural areas from damage maps, including: ▪ Ranges ▪ Residential areas ▪ Sport places, etc 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 22 Development of Crop and Field Indexes ❑ Identification of flood-damaged and stressed fields by using optical bands (Visible, Red-Edge, NIR and SWIR) 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 23 Same Field, Different Conditions Field Inundation Non-damaged Wheat yellow and brown leaf rust disease Non-damaged 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 24 Cultivated and Non-Cultivated Fields I Flood NDV Khuseztan floodedI areas NDV and water basins Flood Satellite image of a part of Dasht-e Azadegan 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 25 Not Affected Fields No Flood/Not Affected Khuseztan flooded areas and water basins Satellite image of a part of Dasht-e Azadegan 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 26 Ground (Field) Checking In Golestan Province > 4000 Points In Khuzestan Province >2000 points 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 27 Example: Damage Assessment in Aq-qala Barley and Not Crop Type Canola Other Crops Sum Wheat Cultivated Area Area Area Area Area Damage [%] [%] [%] [%] percentage [ha] [ha] [ha] [ha] [ha] High (>70%) 13624 57 364 42 1440 80 - 15429 57 Medium 1289 5 46 5 21 1 - 1356 5 (40-70 %) Low (< 40%) 1813 7 117 14 261 15 - 2192 8 No Damage 7316 31 334 38 69 4 8239 30 Sum 24042 100 862 100 1792 100 519 27215 100 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 28 Big Difference in Damage Assessment ❑ Comparing the results of conventional method (claimed by farmers and integrated by local authorities) and space remote sensing showed a total difference of 23500 ha in the damage areas in 3 provinces. ❑ Considering (240 $/ha) of financial support for compensation of damage, space RS technology helped the government to save more than 5.6 million US$ so far! 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 29 Conclusion ❑ ISRC used space remote sensing to efficiently monitor the flood and help the disaster management authorities during and after the flood for the first time in Iran. ❑ Flood damage assessment in agriculture was carried out in all affected provinces by ISRC. ❑ The conventional method of damage assessment showed about 40% of difference (overestimated) in comparison to space RS based method. ❑ Using space remote sensing could save more than 5.6 million US$ for the compensating of damages in agriculture. 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 30 Appreciations 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 31 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 32 Thanks for your kind Attention! Thanks For Your Attention Any Questions? 9/10/2019 Space: A Tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation – 2019 Floods in Iran 33.