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Chile Metropolitan Region Disasters: Enhancing Authority Response to Storm Floods in Chile Leveraging Automatic Satellite Image ProcessingThe Metropolitan Region in central Chile is home to approximately 7 million people. The region frequently experiences disastrous floods, physically impacting tens of thousands of people and causing millions of dollars in damage. Remote sensing methods used to map flooding extents can help emergency responders allocate resources efficiently. Partnering with Centro de Información de Recursos Naturales (CIREN) in collaboration with the Embassy of Chile Agricultural Office, we leveraged the use of satellites Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 9 OLI-2, Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) and hydraulic modeling to resolve flood extents for recent January 29, 2021, and August 23, 2023 flood events. Compared to a reported August 2023 flooding extents, we found that the Earth observation and hydraulic modeling results were significantly less extensive. Additionally, we found that optical and radar datasets were inconsistent means of capturing flood extents, while hydraulic modeling incorporating discharge observations from stream gauges provides a more reliable tool for modeling future flood impacts within the Chile Metropolitan Region. The addition of more localized parameters by CIREN in the hydraulic model can further enhance the model’s outputs. With these results, CIREN can integrate hydraulic modeling into their current methods to characterize riverine floods. While optical and radar imagery are feasible, CIREN should consider their limitations, given issues with cloud contaminations, data quality and temporal restraints.
Document ID
20250002822
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Other - 2024 Fall DEVELOP Tech Paper
Authors
Isabella Giordano
(Analytical Mechanics Associates (United States) Hampton, Virginia, United States)
Viviana Bravo Ortiz
(Analytical Mechanics Associates (United States) Hampton, Virginia, United States)
Jackie Encinas
(Analytical Mechanics Associates (United States) Hampton, Virginia, United States)
Patrick O'Shea
(Analytical Mechanics Associates (United States) Hampton, Virginia, United States)
Date Acquired
March 18, 2025
Publication Date
November 22, 2024
Publication Information
Publisher: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Subject Category
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80LARC23FA024
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Technical Review
Professional Review
Keywords
remote sensing
flood susceptibility
Chile
Landsat 8 OLI
Sentinel-1 SAR
Sentinel-2 MSI
HEC-RAS
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