Mapping Floods in Urban Areas From Dual-Polarization InSAR Coherence Data

Previous studies have shown that the decrease of temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) coherence could be exploited to detect appearance floodwater in urban areas. However, as today, approaches based on this principle only make use single co-polarization images for identifying presence double-bounce feature. In study, we take advantage both co- and cross-polarization significant decreases multitemporal InSAR order enhance mapping We consider not scattering, but also multiple-bounce may occur areas depending how building facades are oriented with respect (SAR) sensor’s line sight. The Sentinel-1 (S-1) mission is particularly well suited applying testing kind approach due systematic availability dual-polarization data. Using a test case, widespread flooding city Houston, USA, caused by Hurricane Harvey 2017, demonstrate proposed methodology leads an increase accuracy flood maps from 75.2% when using VV polarization, 82.9% dual polarization information.