The ambition of H2020 OPERANDUM project is to develop and document Nature Based Solutions (NBS) to mitigate risks associated with hydro-meteorological (HM) hazards. NBS mitigate risks by reducing the vulnerability of a particular system. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the use of multisource remote sensing data in documenting the impact of extreme HM events to advance knowledge on vulnerability and exposure. In particular the focus is to document past impacts due to extreme events selected from a characterization of recent (30 years) HM events in 11 Open Air Laboratories (OALs) where co-design, co-development and deployment of NBS are taking place. The impacts were documented by applying a wide spectrum of satellite image data and other, close – range, remote sensing techniques. A better understanding of the consequences due to extreme HM events in a particular area (OALs) is essential to identify elements at risk and expected to provide a reference to evaluate the reduction of vulnerability and mitigation of risks past the completion of NBS.

This dataset contains Remote Sensing observations for the OAL-Greece , notably:

• Flood maps of the identified extreme flood events occurred in the Elbe river, Germany (OAL-DE) in the last 30 years derived by Space-borne Remote Sensing observations

• Top and Bottom of Atmosphere reflectance, RS indicators and SAR backscatter used to derive the flood maps.

The aim of this work is to demonstrate the use of multisource remote sensing data in documenting the impact of extreme HM events to advance knowledge on vulnerability and exposure. In particular the focus is to document past impacts due to extreme events selected from a characterization of recent (30 years) HM events in 11 Open Air Laboratories (OALs) where co-design, co-development and deployment of NBS are taking place. The impacts were documented by applying a wide spectrum of satellite image data and other, close – range, remote sensing techniques. A better understanding of the consequences due to extreme HM events in a particular area (OALs) is essential to identify elements at risk and expected to provide a reference to evaluate the reduction of vulnerability and mitigation of risks past the completion of NBS. This dataset contains Remote Sensing observations for the OAL-Greece , notably: Flood maps of the identified extreme flood events occurred in the Elbe river, Germany (OAL-DE) in the last 30 years derived by Space-borne Remote Sensing observations Top and Bottom of Atmosphere reflectance, RS indicators and SAR backscatter used to derive the flood maps.

The provided data was produced as part of the Ecas-Baltic project (2020 - 2023). The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF, funding code 03F0860H).

The dataset contains information supporting the conclusions presented in the following publication (the final, revised version of the article will be accessible via the journal webpage):

Kiesel, J., Honsel, L.E., Lorenz, M., Gräwe, U., and Vafeidis, A. T.: Raising dikes and managed realignment may be insufficient for maintaining current flood risk along the German Baltic Sea coast, Communications Earth & Environment, accepted for publication, 2023.

The dataset contains:

- the flood maps containing both the maximum flood extent and maximum inundation depth at every grid cell of the coastal inundation model. The flood maps cover two sea-level rise (1 m and 1.5 m) and three adaptation scenarios (state dikes plus 1.5 m, all dikes plus 1.5 m and potential managed realignment sites including state dikes plus 1.5 m)

- the potential for physically plausible managed realignment sites along the German Baltic Sea coast

- a readme file containing further information on the datasets and related data and publications

For methodological details we refer the reader to the publication cited above and the publication presenting the modelling setup (Kiesel et al., 2023: https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2961-2023). The previously mentioned article provides inundation maps representing the current state of adaptation in terms of dike lines and associated elevations (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7886455). The code to detect the potential physically plausible managed realignment sites is publically available from https://gitlab.com/larsenno/sumare.

Activation time (UTC): 2018-09-05 19:30:00
Event time (UTC): 2018-09-02 06:59:00
Event type: Flood (Flash flood)

Activation reason:
After extensive and heavy raining the town of Tegernbach, municipally of Rudelzhausen, federal state of Bavaria, most of the buildings were hit by flash flooding. No loss of life was reported but many streets, houses and establishments were flooded. Fire Service and volunteers had to intervene to rescue people.

Reference products: 1
Delineation products: 0
Grading products: 1

Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Mapping is a service funded by European Commission aimed at providing actors in the management of natural and man-made disasters, in particular Civil Protection Authorities and Humanitarian Aid actors, with mapping products based on satellite imagery.

Activation date: 2020-02-11
Event type: Other

Activation reason:
This is an exceptional activation of the Risk and Recovery Mapping Service as the analysis does not represent the actual risk assessment, but has been defined by the needs of an exercise planned on 1 April 2020 by the fire-brigade and civil protection command team of the German city of Herne.The simulated scenario consists of a flooding event occurred in Herne due to high water levels of the Emscher river, caused by heavy rainfall over the German cities of Dortmund and Castrop-Rauxel. The southern through wall of the Emscher is damaged at the point: 51.551 N 7.140 E, and breaks at 08.00 a.m. This moment will be considered as the starting point for the exercise. Parts of Herne are instantaneously flooded. Particularly, all areas below 40 m a.s.l may be fully flooded. On the contrary, the northern areas with respect to the Emscher river remain unaffected.The aim of this CEMS Risk and Recovery Standard activation is to provide the fire-brigade and civil protection command team of the German city of Herne with the modelled flood extent (i.e. P05 - Modelled Flood extent for major events) to be used during the planned exercise.Proposed solution and resultsFigure 1 shows the Modelled flood extent for major events map obtained from the hydraulic modelling, while Figure 2 shows a zoom of the position in which the breakage of the banks is assumed. The maximum water depth estimated for the AOI is 6.5m.Figure 1: modelled flood overview. Figure 2: zoom on location of the rupture of the weir.

The “Flussauen in Deutschland 2021” service provides the distribution and size of river floodplains, the floodplain status and the loss of floodplains, as well as the use and protection status of river floodplains. The data are the results of a BfN-funded research and development project, which is used as a floodplain status report 2021 (BMU & BfN 2021) as well as national overview maps on the loss of flood zones and floodplain status (BfN 2021). More detailed information on the methods used are as BfN script 591 (Günther-Diringer et al. 2021) was published. The results of the floodplain state report refer to the floodplains of 79 rivers with a catchment area of more than 1 000 km² excluding tidal areas. In addition, the service “Flussauen in Germany 2021” also includes data on the floodplains of tide rivers with a catchment area of more than 1 000 km². These were developed in 2016 on behalf of the BfN.

Activation time (UTC): 2016-06-02 15:06:00
Event time (UTC): 2016-06-01 00:00:00
Event type: Flood

Activation reason:
A state of emergency was declared following flash floods and flooding caused by heavy rains in Bavaria, in the southeast of Germany. The most affected areas and towns are Triftern, Simbach am Inn and Tann between the rivers Rott and Inn.

Reference products: 5
Delineation products: 5
Grading products: 4

Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Mapping is a service funded by European Commission aimed at providing actors in the management of natural and man-made disasters, in particular Civil Protection Authorities and Humanitarian Aid actors, with mapping products based on satellite imagery.

This data set provides a stochastic event set of flood inundation depth maps (fluvial flood hazard footprints) for the German part of the Danube catchment for current and future climate in GEOTIFF format..

The maps provide inundation depth information in cm above ground level on a 100 m grid along the major rivers (4150 km) based on 2D hydro-numeric simulations. Flood event sets are derived for the historical period (1970-1990) and two RCPs (4.5 and 8.5) for the near future (2020-2049) and far future (2070-2099) for four CORDEX models. These flood event sets are created within continuous long-term simulations of a coupled model chain including the IMAGE stochastic multi-variable, multi-site weather generator, the eco-hydrological model SWIM and 1D river network coupled with 2D hydro-numeric hinterland inundation model.

10,000 years of continuous daily simulation of meteorological fields are available for each time period, rcp and climate model. The current version of the flood inundation data sets includes 100 years of simulations. 1D model cross section geometries are based on 10m DEM (BKG), adjustment of dike heights in model calibration. 2D hinterland simulation using LISFLOOD-FP inertia model on a 100m grid resampled from 10 m DEM.

Key usages of the data are large-scale flood risk assessment, future flood risk assessment and flood risk management with long-term perspective.

The data have been produced within the OASIS+ demonstrator project 'Future Danube Multi Hazard and Risk Model' funded by Climate-KIC in the period from January 2016 to December 2017.

The Waterproofing Data project explored how to build communities’ resilience to flooding, by engaging them in the process of generating the data used to predict when floods will occur. The project team developed a functional citizen-science mobile app prototype and a model school curriculum, which has been successfully co-produced and trialled with more than 300 students from over 20 schools and civil protection agencies of five Brazilian states (Acre, Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo). The app and curriculum enabled the communities involved to democratise flood data, raise awareness of flood risks, and co-design new initiatives to reduce disaster risks to communities.

The project invited participants to co-create a dataset that continuously describes the areas in which flooding impacted their territory. Through this process, the team sought to enhance knowledge about floods among those engaged with the project. This dataset showcases collaborative maps of two flood-prone neighbourhoods in Brazil. The maps were co-created and evaluated with the help of community members and school students living in underserved areas. Data was generated using the SketchMap tool https://sketch-map-tool.heigit.org. The tool supported i) printing paper maps of the neighbourhoods, ii) participants' drawings with the areas they perceived flooding risks, and iii) digitising those areas in a format suitable for cartography. The purpose of this process was to gather input from locals and identify areas that are prone to flooding in the two neighbourhoods. Labels and legends are written in Portuguese. This dataset is complementary data for our publication “Dialogic data innovations for sustainability transformations and flood resilience: The case for waterproofing data” available here https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102730

Waterproofing Data investigates the governance of water-related risks, with a focus on social and cultural aspects of data practices. Typically, data flows up from local levels to scientific "centres of expertise", and then flood-related alerts and interventions flow back down through local governments and into communities. Rethinking how flood-related data is produced, and how it flows, can help build sustainable, flood resilient communities.

To this end, this project develops three innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales: 1) we will make visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data; 2) generate new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multi-modal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data, and; 3) integrate citizen-generated data with other data using geo-computational techniques. These methodological interventions will transform how flood-related data is produced and flows, creating new governance arrangements between citizens, governments and flood experts and, ultimately, increased community resilience related to floods in vulnerable communities of Sao Paulo and Acre, Brazil.

The project will be conducted by a highly skilled international team of researchers with multiple disciplinary backgrounds from Brazil, Germany and the UK, in close partnership with researchers, stakeholders and publics of a multi-site case study on flood risk management in Brazil. Furthermore, the methods and results of this case study will be the basis for a transcultural dialogue with government organisations and local administration involved in flood risk management in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Activation time (UTC): 2020-08-04 16:05:00
Event time (UTC): 2020-08-04 12:00:00
Event type: Flood (Riverine flood)

Activation reason:
Over the last hours heavy rains triggered flooding of the river Inn within the free state of Bavaria. Additional rainfall is expected and gauges will likely remain in flood warning for the next hours. As there has been a high an ongoing demand of THW experts an overview of the extend of the event is necessary.

Reference products: 0
Delineation products: 1
Grading products: 0

Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Mapping is a service funded by European Commission aimed at providing actors in the management of natural and man-made disasters, in particular Civil Protection Authorities and Humanitarian Aid actors, with mapping products based on satellite imagery.

This metadata set describes "Risk Zones" as a feature type of INSPIRE Annex Topic III "Areas with Natural Risks". On behalf of the water management authorities in Germany, the Federal Institute for Hydrology (BfG) manages the reporting data on various water-related EC environmental directives in the national water reporting portal (WasserBLIcK). On the basis of this data, the BfG provides selected map and data services in coordination with the State Working Group on Water (LAWA). The services provided here are based on nationwide homogenized databases. Other administrative levels in Germany (state, district, district, municipality) may provide services on this topic with a higher spatial and temporal resolution.

In July 2021, the German states Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, among others, experienced some of the worst flooding in recent German history. Extremely heavy rainfall for ***** days, caused by cyclone Bernd, lead to catastrophic flooding in multiple areas, with subsequent destruction and fatalities. Many places recorded 3-day numbers which significantly exceeded the average for a whole month.

The Waterproofing Data project explored how to build communities’ resilience to flooding by engaging them in generating the data used to predict when floods will occur. The project team developed a functional citizen-science mobile app prototype and a model school curriculum, which has been successfully co-produced and trialled with more than 300 students from over 20 schools and civil protection agencies of five Brazilian states (Acre, Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo). The app and curriculum enabled the communities involved to democratise flood data, raise awareness of flood risks, and co-design new initiatives to reduce disaster risks to communities. The project invited participants to co-create geospatial data that describes the perceived areas in which flooding impacted their territory. Through this process, the team sought to enhance knowledge about floods among those engaged with the project.

This dataset showcases participatory maps of three flood-prone neighbourhoods in Brazil. The maps were co-created and evaluated with the help of community members and school students living in underserved areas. Data was generated using the SketchMap tool https://sketch-map-tool.heigit.org. The tool supported i) printing paper maps of the neighbourhoods, ii) participants' drawings with the areas they perceived flooding risks, and iii) digitising those areas in a format suitable for GIS and cartography. The purpose of this process was to gather input from locals and identify areas that are prone to flooding in the two neighbourhoods. The process minimised personal data collection while the final map shows aggregated data that prevent linking data with the persons who provide it.

Initial prints, participant’s notes, and some final maps have Portuguese texts.

Waterproofing Data investigates the governance of water-related risks, with a focus on social and cultural aspects of data practices. Typically, data flows up from local levels to scientific "centres of expertise", and then flood-related alerts and interventions flow back down through local governments and into communities. Rethinking how flood-related data is produced, and how it flows, can help build sustainable, flood resilient communities.

To this end, this project develops three innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales: 1) we will make visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data; 2) generate new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multi-modal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data, and; 3) integrate citizen-generated data with other data using geo-computational techniques. These methodological interventions will transform how flood-related data is produced and flows, creating new governance arrangements between citizens, governments and flood experts and, ultimately, increased community resilience related to floods in vulnerable communities of Sao Paulo and Acre, Brazil.

The project will be conducted by a highly skilled international team of researchers with multiple disciplinary backgrounds from Brazil, Germany and the UK, in close partnership with researchers, stakeholders and publics of a multi-site case study on flood risk management in Brazil. Furthermore, the methods and results of this case study will be the basis for a transcultural dialogue with government organisations and local administration involved in flood risk management in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Activation date: 2020-02-17
Event type: Flood

Activation reason:
The CEMS Risk and Recovery Standard has been activated on behalf of the Ministry of Environment of the state of Brandenburg with the objective of assessing a flood event casued by heavy rainfall that hit the area of Rhin-Havelluch, District Oberhavel in Brandenburg (Germany) in June 2017. The peak of the precipitations occurred between the 29th and 30th June 2017. However, rainy days occurred during the next weeks, leading to the permanence of flooded areas until August 2017.The products generated in the framework of this activation aim at illustrating the evolution of the flood extent and at providing a quantification of affected urban areas, infrastructure and agricultural lands.Proposed solution and resultsFlood extent monitoring from Sentinel-1 acquisitions (30.06.2017-15.08.2017) within AOI01-Kremmen and AOI02-OranienburgModelled flood extent and water depth during the first week after the peak of the precipitation.Maximum water depth: 0.07-0.7mMaximum flood extent: AOI01: 12543.3 ha, AOI02: 7164.0 ha.Examples of maximum water extent and maximum water depth are shown in the following figures. Impact assessment based on the modelled maximum flood extent.Detailed damage assessment based on the visual interpretation of two VHR post-event optical images (both aquired on 20.07.2017) (examples of possible and moderate damaged buildings are shown in the following figures, respectively).

Activation time (UTC): 2017-12-14 21:47:00
Event time (UTC): 2017-12-14 20:47:00
Event type: Flood (Riverine flood)

Activation reason:
Since 25.11.2017 there is an ongoing flooding event in Lower Saxony, Germany. In order to assess the current situation and improve the prognosis of the extent of this flooding event, flood monitoring is demanded.

Reference products: 3
Delineation products: 20
Grading products: 0

Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Mapping is a service funded by European Commission aimed at providing actors in the management of natural and man-made disasters, in particular Civil Protection Authorities and Humanitarian Aid actors, with mapping products based on satellite imagery.

Activation time (UTC): 2021-02-01 13:42:00
Event time (UTC): 2021-02-01 12:00:00
Event type: Flood (Riverine flood)

Activation reason:
Strong thawing and rainfall beginning in the last days of January 2021 and ongoing resulted in moderate floodings especially in several parts of Southern and Western Germany. As the water levels are still expected to rise, particularly in the lower catchment areas of the River Rhine, the governmental district of Düsseldorf requested activation of CEMS Rapid Mapping to visualize the current extent of the floodings and to monitor the situation on a daily basis.

Reference products: 0
Delineation products: 7
Grading products: 0

Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Mapping is a service funded by European Commission aimed at providing actors in the management of natural and man-made disasters, in particular Civil Protection Authorities and Humanitarian Aid actors, with mapping products based on satellite imagery.

393 Global export shipment records of Flood Light with prices, volume & current Buyer's suppliers relationships based on actual Global export trade database.

This digital elevation model (DEM) describes the topography of the active floodplain of the freeflowing parts of River Rhine between the weir Iffezheim and the German-Dutch border near Kleve with 1 m spatial resolution in coordinate reference system "ETRS 1989 UTM Zone 32 N" and 0.01 m resolution in the German height reference system "Deutsches Haupthöhennetz 1992 (DHHN92)". […]

Activation date: 2021-08-16
Event type: Flood

Activation reason:
The CEMS Risk and Recovery Standard has been activated for a retrospective assessment of the flood event that took place in Solingen (North Rhine Westphalia area, Germany). A series of storm events throughout June and July 2021 left the ground saturated, followed by heavy rainfalls from the 12th July and particularly on the 14th July 2021. A severe flood event occurred over the next few days along the Moselle, Rhine and Ruhr rivers. The Germany’s weather service Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) reported that at least 7 locations recorded more than 150 mm of rain in 72 hours to 15th July 2021. The period considered for the analysis is between the 13th July and the 16th July 2021.Proposed solution and resultsA hydraulic modelling approach has been adopted to provide the temporal analysis of the occurred flood event (P06 product) in terms of maximum flood extent, maximum water depth, and flood temporal evolution estimated during the period 13th July 2021 – 16th July 2021. The model has been calibrated using two P04-Flood delineation products depicting the flood footprint extracted from Sentinel-1 acquisitions taken on the 15th July (517 ha) and the 16th July 2021 (269 ha)The maximum flood extent retrieved from the hydraulic modelling is 1340 ha. The water depth range has been estimated between 0.25 m and 1.7 m (0.45 m on average)Figure 1 : P06 Temporal analyses of the occurred flood event Figure 2 : Comparison between the flood extent and depth provided by the P04 product (top) and the flood extent (middle) derived from the hydraulic modelling (P06 product) on the peak date, i.e. on 15.07.2021. (Bottom) Maximum flood extent and depth provided by the P06 product

Activation date: 2017-12-06
Event type: Flood

Activation reason:
The scope of the service request was to generate reference information, concerning flood events that occurred from July 25 to July 27 2017, within the Hildesheim district of the Lower Saxony State of Germany. General Reference content and Land Use/Cover products were produced along with flood specific products:The observed flood extentThe maximum flood extent Estimated Maximum Flood ExtentThe observed flood extent product was generated by appropriate processing of relevant SAR imagery during and after the flood event. A classification algorithm confirmed by a semi-automatic technique of thresholding was applied on pre-processed SAR images to detect temporal changes between pre, peak-and post flood extents.The maximum flood extent was determined using the Maximum Water depth isolines. These were derived on the basis of the observed flood extent and through integrating water level estimations considering the Topographic Wetness Index levels.