An Abundance of Information

•  Environmental Base –  Land cover –  Land cover change –  Rivers and discharge

points –  Historic precipitation

•  Risk –  Flood susceptible

areas –  Soil loss –  Land slides

•  Meteorology / Forecasts –  Accumulated

precipitation •  Infrastructure /

political –  Road network –  Cities –  Municipal limits

Understanding the Situation

•  Compare historic precipitation to forecasted precipitation

– Base: WorldClim, Meteorological Institutes, universities, airports

– Predictions: TRMM, GFS, CATHALAC / SERVIR, NRL, HydroEstimator, Meteorological Institutions

Understanding the Situation

•  Identify the areas of interest, based on high precipitation anomaly – Unit of measurement: watersheds, rivers –  Intersection of rivers and flood susceptible

areas with infrastructure or populated areas (cities)

Precipitation

Baseline: 30 year average (WorldClim)

Prediction (GFS)

Note: information is originally monthly; we assume that each week is equal in this example Spatial resolution: 1km

Note: accumulation prediction for the next seven days; Spatial resolution: 37 km

Precipitation Anomaly

•  Prediction – historic •  [event] – [baseline] ~ 0

Selection of Watersheds of Interest

•  Select the watersheds that receive more rain than normal

Integrating the biophysical and human attributes

•  Integrating rivers and areas susceptible to floods with infrastructure or populated places (cities)

Pre vs. Post Analysis

•  Post-analysis normally includes more image interpretation than pre-analysis – Main limiting factor: clouds during the event

Impact Evaluation

•  Interpretación de imágenes satelitales

Impact Evaluation

Sources: Precipitation

•  WorldClim: http://www.worldclim.org

•  CMORPH (Climate Prediction Center Morphing Technique), NOAA: ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/fews/CMORPH/GIS/

•  TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission), NASA: http://disc2.nascom.nasa.gov/Giovanni/tovas/

•  MM5 Forecasts up to 48 hours, CATHALAC: http://www.servir.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=149

•  GFS (Global Forecasting System), NOAA, ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/fews/gfs/37_km/00z/gis/

•  NRL (Naval Research Laboratory): http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/archdat/atlantic/tropics/accumulations/geo/

•  HydroEstimator, NOAA: ftp://www.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/smcd/emb/f_f/hydroest/centralamerica

Sources: MODIS Rapid Response

•  Very useful for fires (hotspots) •  Interesting for tool for tracking cloud movements •  Vegetation monitoring at a large scale(low resolution) •  Evaluation of changes in area of bodies of water (if free

of cloud cover) •  Daily images

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/