Airborne SAR interferometry applied to flood modelling

The Environment Agency has a requirement to accurately model and predict the extent of flood events. These models are used to identify the risk of flooding in specific areas and hence play an important role in determining land values. The models are also an important input when determining flood defence strategies. A crucial factor in determining the models is the knowledge of local topography and terrain variations. This paper describes work by Science Systems (Space) Ltd. and the Defence Research Agency (DRA), using digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from airborne SAR interferometry to address this requirement. The present DRA Andover synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system operates at C-band (5.7 GHz) with a peak power output of 9.4 watts. Single pass interferometric SAR data have been processed for a test site centred on Upton-upon-Severn