Global Flood Monitoring Report 2022

The Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) service, operated by a consortium led by EODC, provides a continuous, global, automated and satellite-based flood monitoring product. It is part of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, managed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The Quality Assessment forms an integral part of the service and includes a regular quarterly assessment of the product and service quality. These activities, led by GeoVille, form part of the Annual Product and Service Quality Assessment Report which has been recently published for the year 2022.

The assessment of the thematic accuracy is performed on the two main output layers, i.e. Observed Flood Extent and Reference Water Maks. Twelve flood events have been selected in 2022 for which the results were compared with independently created reference flood and water maps. Based on selected parameters (Critical Success Index, bias, and accuracy) the results give an indicated on the thematic accuracy of the products. With regard to the main parameter, the Critical Success Index (CSI), eight (Obs. Flood Extent), respectively nine (Permanent Water of the Reference Water Mask) use cases meet or even exceed the target value range between 70 and 80%.

Additionally, the GFM processed archive (2015-2021) was assessed based on a reference dataset of ~55,000 globally distributed sample points reaching an overall accuracy of 95.51% with a Confidence Interval (95%) of ±0.18%.

Learn more about the archive validation under the following link: www.geoville.com/news/newsdetail/global-flood-monitoring-global-product-validation/

Apart from the thematic assessment, the service delivery was constantly monitored based on defined Key Performance Indicators that measure and reflect on the product timeliness, service availability, and user uptake.

Continuous monitoring and a regular assessment and reporting of the defined parameter is an important activity to guarantee the quality and reliability of the service. The outcomes of the regular assessments enable the improvement of the quality of the GFM product and of the service in general.

The results of these assessments and monitoring activities are published in a yearly report. The 2022 edition has just been released.

Want to learn more? Click here to download the report: publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC135249