Historical Flood Mapping Proof of Concept

This is a proof of concept web service displaying trial samples of historic flood mapping from satellite. Over the next 2 years this service will be developed into a nationwide portal displaying flooding across Australia as observed by satellite since 1987.The service shows a summary of water observed by the Landsat-5 and MODIS satellites across Australia for periods between 2000 and 2012.The first layer set displays national observed water from MODIS fvrom 2000 to 2012, as derived by Geoscience Australia using an automated flood mapping algorithm. The colouring of the display represents the frequency of observed water in a 500 x 500m grid. The higher the number, the more often water was observed by the satellites over the period. This means that floods have low values, while lakes, dams and other permanent water bodies have high values.The three additional layer sets are study areas demonstrating the water observed in each study area by the Landsat-5 satellite, as derived by Geoscience Australia using an automated flood mapping algorithm. The study areas and the observation periods are:Study Area 1, Condamine River system between Condamine and Chinchilla, Qld, observed between 2006 and 2011Study Area 2, North-west Victorian rivers between Shepparton and Kerang, observed between 2006 and 2011Study Area 3, Northern Qld rivers, near Normanton, observed between 2003 and 2011Each Study Area layer set includes a water summary displaying the frequency of observed water in 25 x 25m grids, plus individual flood extents for specific dates where flooding was observed. Similar to the national, MODIS summary, the higher the value, the more often water was observed by the satellites over the period. Limitations of the InformationThe automated flood mapping algorithm can confuse cloud shadows and snow with flood water, so some areas shown as water may be incorrect. This is a proof of concept dataset and has not been validated.

Data quality information