The first Global Flood Monitoring Service is operational
The first fully automatic, global, Sentinel-1 based flood identification and monitoring service is operational. A Web application allows users to download the data (all flood product layers, NRT and archives) and receive web push notifications for their specified areas of interest for detected flood events.
Global Flood Monitoring Service
The completely automated process chain allows a continuous 24/7 operation to enhance the timeliness of flood maps for emergency response. This open access service, coordinated by the Joint Research Center (JRC) as part of the Copernicus Emergency Management Services (EMS) run by the European Commission, enables stakeholders from various domains to continuously and systematically monitor flood events worldwide.
A team of scientists and technical experts is engaged to ensure a timely operational provision of the products. The core product, the Observed Flood Extent, integrates the results of three robust, cutting edge classification algorithms into a single product. The SAR based approach makes use of available European satellite technologies and fully builds on the Copernicus Sentinel-1 missions. All incoming scenes are immediately processed within a minimum of 60 minutes via an operational system of well-suited hard- and software components that produce the flood product.
All GFMS products are openly and freely accessible via the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS). The portal allows registered users to access and visualise the processed data. The daily layers are updated on a continuous basis during the day. A Web application allows users to download the data (all flood product layers, NRT and archives) and receive web push notifications for their specified areas of interest for detected flood events.
Click here to access the Web Application: https://portal.gfm.eodc.eu/
Within the consortium, GeoVille is responsible for cloud and High-Performance Computing (HPC) operating system (including process monitoring), the data access and dissemination system, including the Web Map Service, as well as the quality assurance. Quality Assessment procedures include both systematic automated and planned offline quality checks considering all aspects of the production, from data ingestion to data processing, data delivery, and thematic accuracy of the main GFMS product output layers. A detailed analysis of the quality will be published soon.
The team consists of the Earth Observation Data Center (EODC) and its shareholder GeoVille (Austria), the Technical University Wien (TUW, Austria), the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST, Luxembourg), the Centro Internazionale in Monitoraggio Ambientale Fondazione (CIMA, Italy), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR, Germany).
