Flood Detection and Monitoring with EO Data Tools and Systems

A timely identification and monitoring of flood events by means of Earth Observation (EO) data is, nowadays, increasingly feasible thanks to recent advances achieved in remote sensing and hydrological process simulations. Despite the notable progress in these fields, a considerable effort will still be required to reduce the intrinsic inaccuracies of these types of approaches. The coarse spatial and temporal resolution of satellite measurements (compared to the one that characterizes in-situ instruments), in fact, continues to require a local-scale validation. Taking into account pros and cons of the approaches based on remotely-sensed data, this chapter reviews some of the most relevant open-access techniques, products, and services that research and academic institutes are currently providing for the detection and the near real-time monitoring of extreme hydrometeorological events.