%0 Journal Article
%T Satellite-based assessment of the August 2018 flood in parts of Kerala, India
%A C.L. Vishnu
%A K.P. Thrivikramji
%A K.S. Sajinkumar
%A R.A. Coffman
%A S. Keerthy
%A T. Oommen
%A V.R. Rani
%J Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2018.1543212
%X Abstract From 1 June to 29 August 2018, Kerala, a state in southwestern India, recorded 36% excess rainfall than normal levels, leading to widespread floods and landslides events and resulting in 445 deaths. In this study, satellite-based data were used to map the flood inundation in the districts of Thrissur, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Idukki and Kottayam. Specifically, flood delineation was enabled with Sentinel-1A radar data of 21 August 2018 and was compared with an average pre-flood, water-cover map based on Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) that was developed using a January and February 2018 Sentinel-2A dataset. A 90% increase in water cover was observed during the August 2018 flood event. Low lying areas in the coastal plains of Kuttanad and the Kole lands of Thrissur, had marked a rise of up to 5 and 10£żm of water, respectively, during this deluge. These estimates are conservative as that the flood waters had started receding prior to the August 21 Sentinel-1A imagery
%U https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19475705.2018.1543212