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DATASET

Satellite-derived flood depth maps for Europe

Collection: FLOODS : River Flood Hazard and flood event catalogue at European and Global Scale 

Description

The dataset contains a catalogue of satellite-derived flood depth maps across Europe over the period 2015-2024 at 20m spatial resolution. The results rely on the systematic identification of flooded areas using the entire Sentinel-1 archive as provided by the Global Flood Monitoring system of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. Flood delineations are consolidated and clustered to identify single flood events. Ground topography is used to enhance flood delineations and reduce under detection, as well as to identify and remove false positives. Further details on how this dataset was generated as well as the limitations and known issues can be found in the relevant publication. Detailed technical information about the dataset can be found in the README file.

Contact

Email
Peter.SALAMON (at) ec.europa.eu

Contributors

How to cite

Andrea Betterle; Salamon, Peter (2025): Satellite-derived flood depth maps for Europe. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] doi: 10.2905/0bc96690-b89c-4909-9166-c2c322a20130 PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/0bc96690-b89c-4909-9166-c2c322a20130

Keywords

archive Copernicus Emergency Management Service Flood flood depth global flood monitoring monitoring remote sensing Sentinel 1

Data access

Satellite-derived flood depth maps for Europe
Use conditions
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 
Access conditions
No limitations 
URL 

  • Each year has its folder containing the flood depth maps with water depths in cm. Dummy 9999 values correspond to permanent/seasonal water bodies. Naming conventions for file names: WD_MERGE_[event start date]---[event end date]_duration_[event duration]_days_cluster_[flood ID]_A0_[GFM-derived flood extent in km2]_A_[topography-enhanced flood extent in km2]_lat_[centre of mass of the flooded area in cents of latitude]_lon_[centre of mass of the flooded area in cents of longitude]_size_[spatial spread of flooded area].tif

Publications

Publication
Ten years floods across Europe mapped from space with reconstructed water depth
Andrea Betterle, Peter Salamon, Ten years floods across Europe mapped from space with reconstructed water depth, Science Advances AAAS, manuscript under review.
URL 

Geographic areas

Europe

Temporal coverage

From date To date
2015-01-01 2024-12-31

Additional information

Published by
European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Created date
2025-11-12
Modified date
2025-11-24
Issued date
2025-11-17
Language(s)
English
Data theme(s)
Environment, Science and technology
Update frequency
annual
Identifier
http://data.europa.eu/89h/0bc96690-b89c-4909-9166-c2c322a20130
Popularity