InundationExtent_Hurricane_Florence_UAVSAR_V2.0

NASA/JPL's UAVSAR data provides daily high-resolution (about 5 meters) full-polarized L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar observations collected between September 18th and 23rd, 2018, during Hurricane Florence. The dataset contains flood inundation extent information for four UAVSAR flight lines covering the Neuse, Cape Fear, and Lumbee Rivers in Eastern North Carolina. The data was used by Chao Wang et al. (2021) to construct a detection framework combining polarimetric decomposition and a Random Forest classifier, achieving a Kappa statistic of 91.4%.

Use Cases

• Validate flood inundation detection models based on the described polarimetric decomposition and Random Forest classifier framework.
• Analyze temporal changes in floodwater extent based on at least four days of observations from September 18-23, 2018.
• Study the impact of Hurricane Florence's rainfall and riverine flooding on specific river basins in North Carolina.
• Assess the performance enhancement of SAR-based classification by incorporating terrain variables as described in the methodology.

Strengths

• High spatial resolution of about 5 meters per pixel for detailed flood mapping.
• Validation with compiled ground references showed a Kappa statistic increase to 91.4% from 64.3% with the described methodology.
• Contains at least four days of observations (Sep 18-23) for temporal analysis of flood dynamics.
• Covers a specific, impactful event (Hurricane Florence 2018) with record-setting riverine flooding.

Limitations

• The dataset and related manuscript are noted as under review, so changes and corrections are expected.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The spatial coverage is limited to four specific UAVSAR flight lines in Eastern North Carolina.

Provenance

Source

NASA/JPL (data collection), Chao Wang (dataset creator)

Collection Method

Data gathered via daily high-resolution full-polarized L-band Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR). Inundation extent derived via a framework combining polarimetric decomposition and a Random Forest classifier.

Time Range

September 18 to September 23, 2018

Geography

Eastern North Carolina, USA, covering the Neuse, Cape Fear, and Lumbee Rivers and their tributaries.