9/2/2023 0 Comments Europe flood mapTo create the World Flood Mapping Tool, Mehmood and his colleagues relied on satellite images publicly available through Google Earth Engine. Knowing where past flooding has destroyed agriculture, for example, would help local stakeholders identify safer places to plant crops. Having easily accessible flood data could help governments, insurance companies and urban planners determine the safest locations for investing in housing and industry. Experts warn the financial and personal losses are likely to escalate with climate change, as warmer air can hold more moisture, affecting the intensity and frequency of precipitation. According to the report, which Mehmood co-authored, over 5,300 water-related disasters have been reported across the world since 2000, leading to more than 325,000 fatalities and economic losses exceeding $1.7 trillion. Similar mapping tools have been developed to assess floods by type and region, “but you don't see anything happening at a global scale,” says Hamid Mehmood, a remote-sensing specialist at UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health ( UN-INWEH) in Hamilton, Canada, and the tool’s lead developer.Ī 2019 report from UNU-INWEH noted that around 90 percent of natural disasters are water-related, including cyclones, floods and droughts. Viewers can see water inundation images down to street level. Users can select a location and timeframe, and the tool, which draws on decades of data from remote-sensing satellites, produces a flood map at a 30-meter-about 100-foot-resolution. The tool allows scientists, organizations and curious members of the public to adjust variables to see where floods have occurred in the past. Experts hope the online tool will aid in disaster readiness and future planning, especially for vulnerable countries with limited access to reliable flood maps. The new resource comes after a year of historic water-related disasters, including severe floods in Western Europe and the northeastern United States. Last month, the United Nations University released a free tool that generates high resolution maps of floods worldwide since 1985.
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