Potential of Sentinel-1 and 2 to Assess Flooded Areas Ghaleb Faour * National Center for Remote Sensing, National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), Riad al Soloh, 1107 2260 Beirut, Lebanon * Corresponding author: Ghaleb Faour, National Center for Remote Sensing, National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), Riad al Soloh, 1107 2260 Beirut, Lebanon, Tel: +961 3 823423; E-mail: gfaour@cnrs.edu.lb Received date: Dec 03, 2018; Accepted date: Dec 19, 2018; Published date: Dec 28, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Faour G. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract This paper illustrates the potential of Sentinel-1 and -2 for flood detection, mapping and characterization with the aim of establishing policies and procedures that need to be followed in order to lower the impact of future floods. The study area is located in Ras Baalbeck, where highlands meet vast plain area. As it relatively contains poor infrastructures and where income is mainly based on agriculture, flood prevention and mitigation initiatives are much needed. Multiple field visits were conducted to identify the affected areas. Based on the later and while computing thresholds, we did classify multiple satellite imageries into damaged and un-damaged areas. The results achieved were produced under Geographical Information System (GIS)-based software. The adopted methodology is described followed by an analysis of future perspectives. The flooded areas extended 5.08 km2 and over two major villages. While Sentinel-2 generated acceptable results, Sentinel-1 did not show any difference between affected and non-affected area in term of soil water content. Still, with their high spatial and temporal resolutions, these two satellites, particularly when coupled, could have the potential to identify the affected areas and to deliver compensations based on it. Keywords: Flooded areas; Sentinel-1; Sentinel-2; Lebanon Introduction Flood is generally regarded as the most devastated natural hazard [1]. It is claiming the largest amount of lives and property damage worldwide [2]. Te usage of remote sensing datasets in food-related studies enables the reconstruction of recent history of the land surface as well as predicting future hazardous events. Tus, several previous studies have focused on obtaining information using remote sensing imageries [1,3-5], with the proposal of diferent approaches. Some of them used visible and infrared bands [6,7], Other preferred passive microwave [8,9], or radar (active microwave) satellites [10,11]. Furthermore, various previous studies have discussed and implemented remote sensing techniques in river stage and discharge [12-14]. High spatial and temporal resolution satellite data such as Sentinel-1 and -2 are particularly useful for the spatial and temporal analysis of the fooded areas [5]. Generally, when remotely sensed images are available before and afer such event, identifcation of these region would be much easier. Tis paper proposes a straightforward approach to assess and map food-afected area. It is mainly based on the usage on both sentinel satellites, namely Sentinel-1 and -2, having a 10-m spatial resolution and a revisit time of six days. Te importance of such study lies in delimiting the afected agricultural parcels which were distracted following the food in 2018. Tis information is important for both local government body as well as dweller to help them better shape future policies and management plans. Study Area Ras Baalbek is a Lebanese local authority, which is located in Baalbek District, an administrative division of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. It is located 125 km northeast of the capital Beirut. Te average elevation in the area is 1000 m. Tis region is considered as one of the main areas that are highly vulnerable to desertifcation due to the intense solar radiations coupled with very low annual precipitation. Main economic activity in the region is based on agriculture. Furthermore, Ras Baalbek was in the recent years a hot confict area mainly because its proximity to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in the nearby village of Arsal. More recently, heavy rain in the heights of Anti-Lebanon mountain chains on June 13th, 2018 resulted in torrential foods that took the life of a woman and led to enormous damage in the region (Figure 1). H y d r o l o g y : C u r r e n t R es e a r c h ISSN: 2157-7587 Hydrology: Current Research Faour, Hydrol Current Res 2018, 9:4 DOI: 10.4172/2157-7587.1000308 Research Article Open Access Hydrol Current Res, an open access journal ISSN: 2157-7587 Volume 9 • Issue 4 • 1000308