High-Precision Flood Mapping From Sentinel-1 Dual-Polarization SAR Data

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR), with its ability to function under any weather conditions and at any time of day, along with multipolarization and frequent revisit capabilities, plays a crucial role in flood monitoring. However, SAR images face challenges, such as coherent speckle noise, feature mixing, terrain undulation, and adverse weather, making flood monitoring difficult. To address these challenges, this article proposes a high-precision flood mapping method from Sentinel-1 dual-polarization SAR data. We begin by generating false-color images through polarization combination and apply them to a multiscale segmentation approach, overcoming the limitations of single-polarization scattering and effectively reducing speckle noise. Digital elevation model (DEM) and reference water datasets are integrated into the segmentation process to mask terrain shadowing and permanent water. To reduce feature mixing effects, the optimal SAR image with minimal feature mixing is selected for flood mapping using the Gaussian mixture model. In the subsequent two-step classification process, fuzzy sets of texture features are incorporated to assist in categorizing uncertain regions, further reducing interference from feature mixing and enhancing flood recognition accuracy. Additionally, integrating pixel- and object-level analyses minimizes errors caused by improper segmentation. The proposed method is compared with several well-established algorithms, and the results demonstrate that our method outperforms the others in flood mapping accuracy. Analysis of years of flooding on the Leizhou Peninsula shows that Sentinel-1 SAR has the potential to effectively monitor the occurrence and development of floods.