This document summarizes a project investigating the use of satellite and geospatial data to enhance flood risk management in Hampshire, UK. It describes several products including flood maps created from optical and radar satellite data, land cover maps identifying crop types, and crowdsourced landscape change analysis using historical aerial photos. Case studies show flood maps of several areas and ultra-high resolution aerial surveys of a flood plain are presented. The project aims to improve emergency response and integrate these techniques into existing flood management systems.

1. Project funded by
Mark Braggins, Hampshire Hub Partnership (mark.braggins@hants.gov.uk)
Tim Pearson, RSAC Ltd, Project Manager (tim@rsacl.co.uk)
Local Authority Discovery Day
13 March 2015
Satellite Applications Catapult, Harwell, UK
FLOODING INFORMATION
FOR HAMPSHIRE

3. HAMPSHIRE HUB
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4. WuDoWuD
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5. DIFFERENT FIRE SERVICE EVENTS ARE
CONCENTRATED IN DIFFERENT AREAS
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6. Geology Surface water Distance to surface water
Spot heights Flood extents Road and rail interactions
CRUNCHING THE DATA – BUILDING UP A PICTURE
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7. FIRST PASS AT A PREDICTIVE MODEL
– White represents areas with a high
probability of flooding
– Green represents areas with a low
probability of flooding
– Red crosses indicate known flood callout
locations (positive targets)
– Blue crosses indicate non-flooded
locations (negative targets)
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8. FLOOD RISK IN HAMPSHIRE
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Southern Daily Echo
Winchester Today
BBC
BBC Southern Daily Echo
BBC

9. FLOODING INFORMATION FOR HAMPSHIRE
– Investigate, through example-led consultation, the interest amongst Hampshire Hub
partners in EO-derived products with the potential to enhance flood risk management
– including improving the effectiveness of Whether You Do or Weather You Don’t
– 3-month project (initially)
– January – March 2015
– Report on perceived utility of products, provide recommendations for operational
implementation and possible integration within WUDOWUD
– Proposed portfolio of products promises to improve the efficiency of flood risk
management and response activities within HCC and the wider public sector by
facilitating smarter operations
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Led by the UK Space Agency
Delivered in collaboration with the Satellite Applications Catapult

10. PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONS PORTFOLIO
– Flood maps
– accurate and timely maps of flood extent and depth
– derived from radar and optical satellite images
– Flood extent vs flood plain capacity
– indicator of impending criticality in natural systems
– Land cover information for flooded areas
– the nature of submerged land
– to inform emergency response strategies, recovery prioritisation, compensation payment
calculations
– Catchment sensitive farming
– information about farming practices potentially linked to increased flood risk
– Landscape change maps
– information potentially relating to altered risk of flooding
– Flood plain characterisation
– detailed, up-to-date elevation models
– support for mitigation scenario testing
– Property damage survey by UAV
– Crowdsourced geo-tagged eyewitness information about evolving flood events
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11. Project funded by
FLOOD MAPS

12. FLOOD MAPS
Optical
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Testwood Lakes
Flood map for
1 February 2014
(orange) shown
over Landsat 8
false colour
composite (middle
infra-red, infra-red
and red)
© RSAC 2014; Landsat imagery courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and U.S. Geological Survey

13. FLOOD MAPS
VHR SAR
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Romsey
Flooding on
24 December 2013
appears blue in a
multi-temporal
composite of
COSMO-SkyMed
VHR SAR images
(30 August 2013,
24 December 2013)
COSMO-SkyMed Product – © ASI 2013 processed under license from ASI – Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. All rights reserved. Distributed by e-GEOS.

14. FLOOD MAPS
VHR SAR
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Testwood Lakes
Flooding on
24 December 2013
appears blue in a
multi-temporal
composite of
COSMO-SkyMed
VHR SAR images
(30 August 2013,
24 December 2013)
COSMO-SkyMed Product – © ASI 2013 processed under license from ASI – Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. All rights reserved. Distributed by e-GEOS.

15. COPERNICUS SENTINEL-1 SAR DATA
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IWS mode
250km-wide swath
VV polarisation
16 November 2014
acquisition repeated
routinely every 12 days

16. FLOOD MAPS
Sentinel-1 SAR
Pulborough, West Sussex
16 November 2014
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Flooding visible in November 2014 Flooding has regressed by December 2014

17. FLOOD MAPS
Sentinel-1 SAR
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West Sussex
Flood map for
16 November 2014 (blue)
shown over Sentinel-1
IWS image

18. FLOOD MAPS
Sentinel-1 SAR
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19. Project funded by
LAND COVER IN FLOOD-PRONE
AREAS

20. LAND COVER INFORMATION
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21. ENHANCED LAND COVER INFORMATION
Land Cover Plus
– Annual crop map in the context of the UK’s national Land Cover Map
– Produced from multi-temporal satellite radar data
– Provides detailed, up-to-date and consistent cropping data
– Operational service planned from 2015 using free Sentinel-1 data
– Innovate UK co-funded feasibility study included trial site in eastern Hampshire for 2014
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22. LC+: CROP MAP OF EASTERN HAMPSHIRE, 2014
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23. LAND COVER INFORMATION INTERSECTED WITH
FLOOD RISK
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R i v e r I t c h e n

24. Project funded by
LANDSCAPE CHARACTER

25. CROWDSOURCING LANDSCAPE CHANGE
Develop an innovative solution to extract information about changes in the landscape from
archived aerial photography and satellite imagery using crowdsourcing via an online
platform
– Invite citizens to identify/map/describe changes between two image vignettes of the same
area acquired on different dates
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First pre-commercial service demonstrator to be based on HCC archive aerial
photography
– Crowdsourcing campaign aligned with Hampshire Hub
– Task involving description of the makeup of the Hampshire landscape and
the changes that are occurring within it
– Addresses some flood risk management requirements as well as providing
new county-wide datasets giving an overall picture of the health of the
county
– Launching soon!

26. LANDSCAPE WATCH HAMPSHIRE
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27. THEMATIC DISPLAY OF RESULTS
– Data presented as thematically coloured
raster maps
– Using any one or combination of a
number of landscape character
parameters
– Holistic view of the state of the
country and hotspot locations for
various types of change for end
users
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28. Project funded by
UAV SURVEY

29. ULTRA-HIGH RESOLUTION SITE SURVEY
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Romsey flood plain
5 March 2015
RSAC-owned eBee UAV
N >

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Resolution = 3cm
© RSAC Ltd 2015

31. ULTRA-HIGH RESOLUTION SITE SURVEY
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N >
Romsey Flood Plain
Derived elevation model

32. ULTRA-HIGH RESOLUTION SITE SURVEY
Oblique imaging capability
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© RSAC Ltd 2014

33. FURTHER PLANNED WORK
– Case studies finalisation
– Integration with WUDOWUD
– Demonstration Workshop at HCC
– detailed presentation of case studies
– Products utility assessment
– Recommendations for further development and operational implementation of flooding
information services, and their integration within current processes
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