Delineation of water bodies is essential especially in dry areas, where ephemeral water bodies that disappear for most part of the year may represent a fundamental resource for local populations: repeated satellite observations can facilitate inventorying efforts, as well as monitoring of reservoir development, distribution, storage and conditions. In areas prone to flooding, on the other hand, information on flood extent may be extremely useful for forecasting and creation of hazard maps. Satellite observations may also allow the retrieval of water surface heights over the largest inland water bodies and can be used to constrain regional scale hydrological models of main river basins.
Surface Water and Flood
 | Map showing flood patterns in 2005 in the Okavango Delta Wetlands using 13 Radar images. Areas identified as open water surfaces are highlighted in blue and water surfaces covered by vegetation in green. The spatial resolution of 150m captures small scale flooding patterns such aschannels and lagoons. |
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 | Small reservoir delineated on ENVISAT ASAR images. With (bottom) and without (top) Bragg scatter induced by wind (indicated). Yellow arrow depicts look direction. |
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 | ASAR AP image (top) and LANDSAT ETM+ (center) showing a part of Kafue Flats during flooding, ASAR highest backscatter signal has been noticed at locations with inundated vegetation. (bottom) Village of fisherman inKafue Flats during flooding season. |
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 | Surface water mapping in Burkina Faso using multi date Radarsat 1 SAR imagery. |
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