Satellite-Detected Water Extent in Guyana, June 2021

About 2,000 km² of land appeared flooded in Guyana as observed from satellite imagery on 8 June 2021. The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) produced this preliminary analysis, which also estimates that approximately 30,000 people were potentially exposed or living close to the flooded areas. The detected water extent had decreased by about 1,000 km² since two days prior.

Use Cases

• Assessing flood extent change over two days based on the reported decrease of 1,000 km²
• Estimating population exposure to flooding based on the integration with WorldPop data
• Prioritizing humanitarian response based on regional population exposure figures (e.g., Region 6 with ~10,000 people)
• Validating hydrological models with satellite-observed surface water extents

Strengths

• Covers an analyzed area of about 140,000 km²
• Includes population exposure estimates for about 30,000 people
• Provides regional breakdowns (e.g., Region 6 with ~10,000 people exposed)

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• This is a preliminary analysis that has not yet been validated in the field

Provenance

Source

United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT)

Collection Method

Analysis of a Joint VIIRS-ABI flood product from satellite imagery

Time Range

Observations from 6 & 8 June 2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-27 10:11:16.927487; freshness should be verified

Geography

Guyana, with specific focus on Regions 2, 5, and 6