Following the floods that hit Italy in November 2019, the Italian Civil Protection Department activated CIMA Research Foundation, its Centre of Competence for hydro-meteorological risk, for a satellite monitoring of affected areas.
In particular, data from Sentinel-1 have been utilized. Sentinel-1 is part of the European Space Agency mission within the Copernicus Programme. It can provide images by night, day and under any meteorological condition. These data, combined with hydrometric river level data, have allowed for the monitoring of the evolution of floods such as those generated by the Po River.
Below, we propose an example of two maps generated thanks to an algorithm developed by CIMA Research Foundation. These maps show the situation around the municipalities of Alessandria, Pavia and Piacenza on November 25th, at 5.35 UTC and around the municipalities of Pavia, Piacenza and Cremona on November 26th, at 5.25 UTC. The permanent waters – Po River ant its tributaries – are coloured in blue, while the flooded areas are in azure. The effects of the Po flooding are clearly visible in the many azure areas around the river.
