Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemes

Study region: Nhat Le river basin, the floodplains of Central coast of Vietnam. Study focus: Flood disasters have a significant impact on population and economies worldwide. To accurately assess flood damage, it is crucial to estimate the water depth and predict the potential spread of damage. Howev...

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Main Authors: Yuei-An Liou, Duc-Vinh Hoang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-06-01
Series:Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221458182400123X
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author Yuei-An Liou
Duc-Vinh Hoang
author_facet Yuei-An Liou
Duc-Vinh Hoang
author_sort Yuei-An Liou
collection DOAJ
description Study region: Nhat Le river basin, the floodplains of Central coast of Vietnam. Study focus: Flood disasters have a significant impact on population and economies worldwide. To accurately assess flood damage, it is crucial to estimate the water depth and predict the potential spread of damage. However, conventional methods of estimating flood depth can be time-consuming and costly due to the large amount of data required from hydraulic and rain-runoff models. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new approach that integrates a machine learning (ML) algorithm with a floodwater depth estimation tool (FwDET) based on SAR imagery and digital elevation models (DEMs). To evaluate our approach, we trained and tested six ML regression algorithms using 804 sets of inventory flood depth data from the historic flood on the Nhat Le River in Vietnam in October 2020 as the dependent variable. This approach significantly improves flood depth prediction accuracy, enabling a faster and more cost-effective estimation of flood damage. New hydrological insights for the region: Our research shows that by combining ML with FwDET, we were able to significantly enhance water depth prediction accuracy. We observed a 25.05% increase in the R2 coefficient and a 13.46% increase in the R coefficient. We recommend integrating satellite imagery, DEM, and ML for flood depth predictions, especially for floodplains with similar topographical conditions as the Nhat Le basin. This approach offers a practical, cost-effective, and near real-time solution for flood response. Implementing this approach can help improve flood damage assessment and mitigate the potential impacts of flood disasters on communities and economies.
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spelling doaj.art-a7e33eac05b4406fbf8fe459eefff1022024-06-09T05:27:54ZengElsevierJournal of Hydrology: Regional Studies2214-58182024-06-0153101775Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemesYuei-An Liou0Duc-Vinh Hoang1Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research, National Central University, 300 Jhongda Road, Jhongli District, Taoyuan City 320317, Taiwan; Corresponding author.The National Key Laboratory of River and Coastal Engineering, Vietnam Academy for Water Resources, 171 Tay Son street, Dongda District, Hanoi 100000, Viet NamStudy region: Nhat Le river basin, the floodplains of Central coast of Vietnam. Study focus: Flood disasters have a significant impact on population and economies worldwide. To accurately assess flood damage, it is crucial to estimate the water depth and predict the potential spread of damage. However, conventional methods of estimating flood depth can be time-consuming and costly due to the large amount of data required from hydraulic and rain-runoff models. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new approach that integrates a machine learning (ML) algorithm with a floodwater depth estimation tool (FwDET) based on SAR imagery and digital elevation models (DEMs). To evaluate our approach, we trained and tested six ML regression algorithms using 804 sets of inventory flood depth data from the historic flood on the Nhat Le River in Vietnam in October 2020 as the dependent variable. This approach significantly improves flood depth prediction accuracy, enabling a faster and more cost-effective estimation of flood damage. New hydrological insights for the region: Our research shows that by combining ML with FwDET, we were able to significantly enhance water depth prediction accuracy. We observed a 25.05% increase in the R2 coefficient and a 13.46% increase in the R coefficient. We recommend integrating satellite imagery, DEM, and ML for flood depth predictions, especially for floodplains with similar topographical conditions as the Nhat Le basin. This approach offers a practical, cost-effective, and near real-time solution for flood response. Implementing this approach can help improve flood damage assessment and mitigate the potential impacts of flood disasters on communities and economies.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221458182400123XFlood depthFwDETMachine learningNhat LeVietnam
spellingShingle Yuei-An Liou
Duc-Vinh Hoang
Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemes
Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies
Flood depth
FwDET
Machine learning
Nhat Le
Vietnam
title Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemes
title_full Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemes
title_fullStr Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemes
title_full_unstemmed Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemes
title_short Improved flood depth estimation with SAR image, digital elevation model, and machine learning schemes
title_sort improved flood depth estimation with sar image digital elevation model and machine learning schemes
topic Flood depth
FwDET
Machine learning
Nhat Le
Vietnam
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221458182400123X
work_keys_str_mv AT yueianliou improvedflooddepthestimationwithsarimagedigitalelevationmodelandmachinelearningschemes
AT ducvinhhoang improvedflooddepthestimationwithsarimagedigitalelevationmodelandmachinelearningschemes