Multi-Sensor Imaging and Space-Ground Cross-Validation for 2010 Flood along Indus River, Pakistan

Remote Sensing

Sadiq I. Khan²  Yang Hong²  Jonathan J. Gourley³  Muhammad Umar Khattak¹ 

[1] Institute of Geographical Information Systems, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan; E-Mail:;School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA;National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Severe Storms Laboratory, National Weather Center, Norman, OK 73072, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: flood monitoring;    optical sensor;    microwave sensors;    SAR;    image analysis;    image classification;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs6032393

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Flood monitoring was conducted using multi-sensor data from space-borne optical, and microwave sensors; with cross-validation by ground-based rain gauges and streamflow stations along the Indus River; Pakistan. First; the optical imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was processed to delineate the extent of the 2010 flood along Indus River; Pakistan. Moreover; the all-weather all-time capability of higher resolution imagery from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) is used to monitor flooding in the lower Indus river basin. Then a proxy for river discharge from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite and rainfall estimates from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) are used to study streamflow time series and precipitation patterns. The AMSR-E detected water surface signal was cross-validated with ground-based river discharge observations at multiple streamflow stations along the main Indus River. A high correlation was found; as indicated by a Pearson correlation coefficient of above 0.8 for the discharge gauge stations located in the southwest of Indus River basin. It is concluded that remote-sensing data integrated from multispectral and microwave sensors could be used to supplement stream gauges in sparsely gauged large basins to monitor and detect floods.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland