A review of low-cost space-borne data for flood modelling: topography, flood extent and water level

During the last two decades, remote sensing data have led to tremendous progress in advancing flood inundation modelling. In particular, low-cost space-borne data can be invaluable for large-scale flood studies in data-scarce areas. Various satellite products yield valuable information such as land surface elevation, flood extent and water level, which could potentially contribute to various flood studies. An increasing number of research studies have been dedicated to exploring those low-cost data towards building, calibration and evaluation, and remote-sensed information assimilation into hydraulic models. This paper aims at reviewing these recent scientific efforts on the integration of low-cost space-borne remote sensing data with flood modelling. Potentials and limitations of those data in flood modelling are discussed. This paper also introduces the future satellite missions and anticipates their likely impacts in flood modelling. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.