Floods Damage Estimation Using Sentinel-1 Satellite Images. Case Study-Galati County, Romania

Romania has a long and well documented history of flooding, resulting in numerous material as well as human loses. In order to monitor and estimate flood damages in near-real time, numerous techniques can be used, from a simply digitizing on maps, to using detailed surveys or remote sensing techniques. However, when using the last mentioned technique, the results are conditioned by the time of data acquisition (day or night) as well as by weather conditions. Although, these impediments can be surpassed by using RADAR satellite imagery.The aim of this study is to delineate the land surface of Galati County that was affected by floods in October 2016. For this case study, Sentinel-1C-Band SAR data provided by ESA (European Space Agency) were used. The data sets were taken before and after the flood took place, all within 6 days and were processed using Sentinel Toolbox.