Extracting information from remote sensing data for applications to flood monitoring and damage evaluation

In the framework of flood risk, a successful exploitation of the information offered by current satellite remote sensing requires not only accurate and reliable image-analysis methods to extract the desired thematic information, but also the ability to combine this information with physically based models of the observed processes. A multidisciplinary approach combining remote sensing with geophysical sciences, such as, in this case, hydrometeorology, is fundamental. In this paper, we investigate the key issues involved in the exploitation of satellite data with special focus on the phases of the emergency and post-disaster damage assessment. The challenges and the methodological approaches involved in the multidisciplinary combination of image analysis and hydrometeorology are discussed with the purpose of guiding and optimizing the process of information extraction from satellite data according to the requirements of civil protection from floods. Experimental examples of a few relevant case studies are also presented.