Increasing Timeliness of Satellite-Based Flood Mapping Using Early Warning Systems in the Copernicus Emergency Management Service

Abstract

Remotely sensed images have become an important source of information for actors involved in disaster management and satellite-based emergency mapping (SEM) is increasingly used to support the response phase in the first hours and days after a disaster occurs. The delivery timeliness of the crisis information is key to the success of SEM. In the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), a procedure was tested during the past 5 years which links the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) with the on-demand Rapid Mapping module in order to anticipate satellite tasking in view of an upcoming activation of the service for riverine floods. This study aims at assessing if the procedure has helped to improve the delivery timeliness of the first flood impact information. For the assessment, we used the Rapid Mapping performance statistics recorded from June 2016 to December 2020. Standard Rapid Mapping activations for floods were compared with those preceded by an EFAS based pre-tasking request. The focus was on essential time stamps such as activation start, provision of imagery and the availability of derived information products. For the pre-tasking-related activations, we further compared the EFAS predictions with the Rapid Mapping user request and compared flood predictions with actual observations. Our results show that the EFAS based pre-tasking improves the timeliness of the first product delivery due to the fact that satellite images could be acquired earlier compared to activations without pre-tasking.

Keywords

• satellite-based emergency mapping
• early warning
• floods
• Copernicus Emergency Management Service
• pre-tasking