e-shape pilot S5-P2 - Satellite Earth Observation-derived water bodies & floodwater record over Europe

Description

Hydrological extremes such as floods have enormous environmental, social and economic consequences and it is expected that climate change effects combined with a growing population in ill-planned flood-prone coastal and riverine areas will increase their impacts in the future. With more lives and assets at risk, governments are increasingly investing in flood reduction measures to improve or at least maintain the current safety level. Understanding historical trends in flooding greatly enhances the ability of flood managers to take action and to address the underlying risk. The HASARD mapping algorithm that was recently implemented on the European Space Agency's (ESA) Grid Processing On Demand (GPOD) environment enables systematic, automatic and reliable spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar-based (SAR) mapping of terrestrial water bodies.
The proposed pilot intends to upscale and operationalize the HASARD service so that a water bodies and floodwater record is generated at large scale and over a long period to support flooding-related disaster risk reduction In Europe. By contributing to a better understanding, monitoring and prediction of risks of extreme weather events and enabling a better resilience of our societies to such events, the pilot directly connects to the sustainable development goals 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) and 13 (Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts).

Acknowledgment
The e-shape project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 820852.

Knowledge Resources

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