Assessing the efforts of the flood diversion and storage in the drainage area of Huaihe River using remote sensing

Flood is one of the most severe natural disasters that do great harm to Chinese economic and social development. In July 2003, the drainage area of the Huaihe River suffered from the most serious flood disaster since 1981. Some areas had been damaged severely. Using remote sensing, we monitored the whole developing process of the flood disaster, from the very beginning of the flood to the recovering after the disaster. The monitored area covered the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River. We used remote sensing data to monitor the flood in two modes: the MODIS data were used to monitor the whole area flood situation; higher resolution radar data were used in the areas that seriously suffered from the flood. We produced 23 reports of the monitoring results from three different types of remote sensing data sources. Combining the remote sensing data with a resource and environment database and a social economic database, we performed analysis and evaluation on the flood disaster. Based on the monitoring results, we evaluated the efforts of the flood diversion and storage in the study area.