Validation of a Prototype Monitoring System of Water Bodies Extent for Civil Protection Applications

Monitoring the "degree of filling" of Water Bodies (WB) is of paramount importance for Civil Protection (CP) applications: e.g., flood control and hydrological drought. Within this context, this work aims at prototyping a system to monitor the spatiotemporal variations of WB extent at high spatial resolution, to support the Italian Civil Protection Department (DPC) activities. The system is based on optical Sentinel 2 data, but it also exploits Sentinel 1 SAR data as a backup source of information to take into account S2 limitations linked to the presence of clouds and shadows. The system performances were validated in a pilot area (i.e., the San Giuliano reservoir, located in Southern Italy), for which reference data were available. Results showed that the presented system has a strong potential to be a valuable tool to be used for CP applications, especially if data are analyzed in terms of monthly anomalies.