The 16th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel:
Flood extent assessment in East Africa with Sentinel-2 data
A few months ago, East Africa faced the consequences of weeks of heavy rains and subsequent flooding, attributed in part to the El Niño weather phenomenon, impacting Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Somalia. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the flooding has devastated communities, with over 750,000 people affected and 234,000 displaced across the region. Tragically, the death toll continues to rise, with at least 400 fatalities including over 155 deaths in Tanzania and 257 in Kenya, as per local authorities. Flooding in the area resulted in tens of thousands of individuals requiring necessities such as food, shelter, clean water, and healthcare, and thousands of hectares of crops damaged.
Satellite sensors, play a pivotal role in flood monitoring not only to assess hazards but also to support in early warning, mitigation and protection of lives and properties. The European Commission initiated the Copernicus program a few years ago, introducing a novel series of Earth Observation satellites called the Sentinels. In this webinar we’ll utilize commonly used methods to assess the extent of selected flooded area in East Africa. Presented techniques will include calculation of water radiometric indices from optical Sentinel-2 bands (e.g. MNDWI, NDWI2, SWM) to assess the water extent and change detection in selected area. Practical demonstration using open-access software will guide attendees through basic processing steps to achieve desired results.
The webinar was executed under the framework of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility by SERCO Italy S.P.A.
You can find the recording of the webinar in our YouTube Channel or you can watch it here: