Contribution of Sentinel 1 Radar Data to Flood Mapping in the San-Pédro River Basin (South-west Côte d’Ivoire)

Abstract

Floods result from the overflow of water which submerges the surrounding land. They are frequent on the coast of Côte d'Ivoire during the rainy season and have more or less serious consequences on the populations, property and the environment. The study site is the San Pedro river basin. It is a coastal catchment area characterized by an average annual rainfall of up to 2000 mm and subject to recurrent flooding. The objective of this study is to assess the risk of flooding during the great rainy season of 2017. The study aims to study flood hazard, assess vulnerability and map flood risk areas. The methodological approach is based on the use of C-band (5.6 cm) radar remote sensing data acquired by the Sentinel-1 sensor at 12-day intervals. These data are in GRD (Ground Range Detected) level 1 format and were used to calculate the radar backscatter coefficient. The results obtained allowed to map the extent of the flooded areas and showed that more than 6,000 ha of land is flooded for more than 3 days. Sentinel-1 has enormous potential to identify flooding risky areas and to continuously monitor them.