Dartmouth Flood Observatory

Dartmouth Flood Observatory
Name	Dartmouth Flood Observatory
Formation	1993
Type	Research center
Headquarters	Hanover, New Hampshire
Leader title	Director
Leader name	Ernest A. Smith
Parent organization	Dartmouth College

Dartmouth Flood Observatory The Dartmouth Flood Observatory is a research center based at Dartmouth College that documents, monitors, and analyzes flood events worldwide using satellite remote sensing, geospatial analysis, and historical archives. Founded in 1993, the Observatory integrates data from Landsat program, MODIS, Sentinel missions, and other Earth observation platforms to provide situational awareness for flood events affecting communities in regions such as the Amazon Rainforest, Ganges Delta, and Mississippi River. Its outputs have informed disaster response from organizations such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while contributing to scientific literature in journals like Science and Geophysical Research Letters.

History

The Observatory was established at Dartmouth College by faculty and researchers interested in hydrology, remote sensing, and hazard mitigation, linking expertise from departments such as the Thayer School of Engineering and the Department of Earth Sciences (Dartmouth College). Early work drew on partnerships with the United States Geological Survey and leveraged data from the Landsat program and the European Space Agency to build an archive of flood imagery. Over time the group expanded collaborations to include the World Meteorological Organization, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and regional institutions like the Bangladesh Water Development Board. Key milestones include the development of a global flood archive, integration of near-real-time satellite feeds, and contributions to assessments following events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and floods on the Yangtze River.

Mission and Objectives

The Observatory’s stated mission aligns with objectives to detect, document, and disseminate reliable information on flood extent and impacts to support decision-makers in entities like the United Nations Development Programme and national emergency services such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Specific aims include maintaining a comprehensive archive usable by researchers at institutions like Columbia University and Imperial College London, improving rapid mapping capabilities for responders including Médecins Sans Frontières, and advancing methodologies that inform policy at venues such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Research and Methodologies

Researchers at the Observatory employ methods that combine optical sensors from platforms like Landsat 8, Terra, and Sentinel-2 with microwave instruments aboard SMAP and Sentinel-1 to overcome cloud cover during events such as monsoon-season floods in the Indian subcontinent or typhoon-driven inundation in the Philippines. Teams apply algorithms derived from studies published in Remote Sensing of Environment and Journal of Hydrology to perform change detection, supervised classification, and time series analysis. Hydrologists collaborate with modeling groups at institutions like the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to link observed inundation with river discharge records from the Global Runoff Data Centre.

Data Products and Services

The Observatory maintains a global flood inventory and provides products including flood extent maps, event metadata, and time-stamped loss estimates used by stakeholders such as the World Bank and insurance firms operating in markets regulated by agencies like the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. Data dissemination channels have included web-based map services compatible with Open Geospatial Consortium standards utilized by projects at the European Commission and downloadable archives referenced in studies by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Oxford.

Major Flood Monitoring Projects

Major initiatives documented or supported by the Observatory include multi-year monitoring of the Amazon River flood pulse, post-event analysis for the 2010 Pakistan floods, basin-scale assessments of the Mekong River, and event-specific mapping following storms such as Hurricane Katrina and Typhoon Haiyan. These projects often interfaced with response efforts coordinated by agencies like USAID and research programs funded by organizations such as the National Science Foundation.

Collaborations and Partnerships

The Observatory has partnered with a range of organizations including the United States Geological Survey, European Space Agency, United Nations Satellite Centre, academic centers such as University of California, Berkeley and Peking University, and humanitarian actors like the International Committee of the Red Cross. Collaborative work has extended to consortia addressing climate impacts at forums like the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and to operational data sharing with commercial satellite operators including Planet Labs.

Impact and Criticism

Impact from the Observatory includes improved situational awareness during major floods used by responders in events such as the 2011 Thailand floods and contributions to scientific understanding of flood dynamics cited in publications in Nature Climate Change. Criticisms have focused on limitations inherent to satellite-based monitoring, including temporal resolution constraints noted by reviewers in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, challenges reconciling remote sensing with ground-based damage assessments by national agencies like the Bangladesh Water Development Board, and debates over the interpretation of loss estimates in insurance and policy settings such as discussions at the World Economic Forum.

Category:Hydrology research institutes Category:Dartmouth College