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Remote Sensing
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Natural Hazard Mapping with Google Earth Engine
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Natural Hazard Mapping with Google Earth Engine

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Earth Observation for Emergency Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 April 2024) | Viewed by 11729

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Nicola Genzano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, via dell'Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Interests: satellite remote sensing; natural hazards; earthquake risks, volcano monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Carolina Filizzola

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis, National Research Council, 85050 Potenza, Italy
Interests: monitoring and mitigation of forest fires; remote sensing of natural/anthropogenic risks
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Francesco Marchese

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Istituto Di Metodologie Per L'analisi Ambientale, Tito Scalo, Italy
Interests: satellite remote sensing of volcanoes; fires; dust outbreaks; natural hazards
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Valerio Tramutoli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Interests: satellite remote sensing; robust satellite techniques for natural; environmental and industrial risks forecast and monitoring: floods, forest fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sand storms, air and water pollution, oil spills and energetic pipelines accidents
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

In recent years, cloud computing infrastructures have contributed to the large diffusion of remote sensing data and applications in the scientific community.

Among the different cloud computing platforms, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform allows users to analyze both historical and recently acquired satellite imagery (e.g., Landsat 1-8, MODIS, Sentinel 1-5), as well as geospatial data set (e.g., reanalysis data from NCEP/NCAR). On the GEE platform, ready-to-use datasets are handled through JavaScript and Python libraries. Moreover, machine-learning techniques were also enabled by the recently added TensorFlow library.

In this Special Issue, we solicit studies using GEE to investigate and monitor natural hazards. In particular, manuscripts focusing on the following topics are welcome:

  • innovative methods, techniques, and algorithms for the analysis of Earth observation datasets;
  • new multi-temporal approaches toward satellite data analysis;
  • investigations at a planetary scale;
  • machine learning and artificial intelligence applications to multi-spectral, multi-temporal EO data;
  • advanced APPs and tools aimed to monitor and map natural and environmental phenomena;
  • advanced methods integrating GEE processing within more complex platforms;
  • advanced APPs and GEE processing, supporting education in geosciences for scholars.

Dr. Nicola Genzano
Dr. Carolina Filizzola
Dr. Francesco Marchese
Prof. Dr. Valerio Tramutoli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Google Earth Engine
  • satellite time-series analysis
  • natural hazards
  • education in Geosciences
  • big data processing
  • artificial intelligence and machine learning applied to Earth observation data

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 8454 KiB  
Article
Detection of Large-Scale Floods Using Google Earth Engine and Google Colab
by Rosa Johary, Christophe Révillion, Thibault Catry, Cyprien Alexandre, Pascal Mouquet, Solofoarisoa Rakotoniaina, Gwenaelle Pennober and Solofo Rakotondraompiana
Remote Sens. 2023, 15(22), 5368; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15225368 - 15 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2011
Abstract
This paper presents an operational approach for detecting floods and establishing flood extent using Sentinel-1 radar imagery with Google Earth Engine. The methodology relies on change detection, comparing pre-event and post-event images. The change-detection method is based on the normalised difference ratio. Additionally, [...] Read more.
This paper presents an operational approach for detecting floods and establishing flood extent using Sentinel-1 radar imagery with Google Earth Engine. The methodology relies on change detection, comparing pre-event and post-event images. The change-detection method is based on the normalised difference ratio. Additionally, the HAND model is employed to delineate zones for processing only in flood-prone areas. The approach was tested and calibrated at a small scale to optimise parameters. In these calibration tests, an accuracy of 85% is achieved. The approach was then applied to the whole of the island of Madagascar after Cyclone Batsirai in 2022. The proposed method is enabled by the computing power and data availability of Google Earth Engine and Google Colab. The results show satisfactory accuracy in delineating flooded areas. The advantages of this approach are its rapidity, online availability and ability to detect floods over a wide area. The approach relying on Google Tools thus offers an effective solution for generating a large-scale synoptic picture to inform hazard management decision making. However, one of the method’s drawbacks is that it depends to a large extent on frequent radar imagery being available at the time of flood events and on free access to the platform. These drawbacks will need to be taken into account in an operational scenario. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Hazard Mapping with Google Earth Engine)
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24 pages, 46157 KiB  
Article
Automatic Mapping of Burned Areas Using Landsat 8 Time-Series Images in Google Earth Engine: A Case Study from Iran
by Houri Gholamrezaie, Mahdi Hasanlou, Meisam Amani and S. Mohammad Mirmazloumi
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(24), 6376; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14246376 - 16 Dec 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3406
Abstract
Due to the natural conditions and inappropriate management responses, large part of plains and forests in Iran have been burned in recent years. Given the increasing availability of open-access satellite images and open-source software packages, we developed a fast and cost-effective remote sensing [...] Read more.
Due to the natural conditions and inappropriate management responses, large part of plains and forests in Iran have been burned in recent years. Given the increasing availability of open-access satellite images and open-source software packages, we developed a fast and cost-effective remote sensing methodology for characterizing burned areas for the entire country of Iran. We mapped the fire-affected areas using a post-classification supervised method and Landsat 8 time-series images. To this end, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) and Google Colab computing services were used to facilitate the downloading and processing of images as well as allowing for effective implementation of the algorithms. In total, 13 spectral indices were calculated using Landsat 8 images and were added to the nine original bands of Landsat 8. The training polygons of the burned and unburned areas were accurately distinguished based on the information acquired from the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), Sentinel-2 images, and Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) products. A combination of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Neural Network (NN) approaches was then implemented to specify 19 optimal features out of the 22 bands. The 19 optimal bands were subsequently applied to two classifiers of NN and Random Forest (RF) in the timespans of 1 January 2019 to 30 December 2020 and of 1 January 2021 to 30 September 2021. The overall classification accuracies of 94% and 96% were obtained for these two classifiers, respectively. The omission and commission errors of both classifiers were also less than 10%, indicating the promising capability of the proposed methodology in detecting the burned areas. To detect the burned areas caused by the wildfire in 2021, the image differencing method was used as well. The resultant models were finally compared to the MODIS fire products over 10 sampled polygons of the burned areas. Overall, the models had a high accuracy in detecting the burned areas in terms of shape and perimeter, which can be further implicated for potential prevention strategies of endangered biodiversity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Hazard Mapping with Google Earth Engine)
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17 pages, 6221 KiB  
Article
A Tailored Approach for the Global Gas Flaring Investigation by Means of Daytime Satellite Imagery
by Mariapia Faruolo, Nicola Genzano, Francesco Marchese and Nicola Pergola
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(24), 6319; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14246319 - 13 Dec 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2124
Abstract
The Daytime Approach for gas Flaring Investigation (DAFI), running in Google Earth Engine (GEE) environment, exploits a Normalized Hotspot Index (NHI), analyzing near-infrared and short-wave infrared radiances, to detect worldwide high-temperature gas flaring sites (GFs). Daytime Landsat 8—Operational Land Imager (OLI) observations, of [...] Read more.
The Daytime Approach for gas Flaring Investigation (DAFI), running in Google Earth Engine (GEE) environment, exploits a Normalized Hotspot Index (NHI), analyzing near-infrared and short-wave infrared radiances, to detect worldwide high-temperature gas flaring sites (GFs). Daytime Landsat 8—Operational Land Imager (OLI) observations, of 2013–2021, represents the employed dataset. A temporal persistence criterion is applied to a gas flaring customized NHI product to select the GFs. It assures the 99% detection accuracy of more intense and stable GFs, with a very low false positive rate. As a result, the first daytime database and map of GF sites, operating during the last 9 years at global scale, has been generated. For each site, geographical metadata, frequency of occurrence and time persistence levels, at both monthly and annual scale, may be examined, through the specific developed GEE App. The present database will complement/integrate existing gas flaring maps. The joint use of global scale daytime and nighttime GFs inventories, in fact, will allow for tracking gas flaring dynamics in a timely manner. Moreover, it enables a better evaluation of GF emissions into the atmosphere. Finally, the next DAFI implementation on Landsat 9 and Sentinel 2 data will further improve our capabilities in identifying, mapping, monitoring and characterizing the GFs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Hazard Mapping with Google Earth Engine)
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Graphical abstract

26 pages, 9163 KiB  
Article
Impacts of the Urmia Lake Drought on Soil Salinity and Degradation Risk: An Integrated Geoinformatics Analysis and Monitoring Approach
by Bakhtiar Feizizadeh, Davoud Omarzadeh, Keyvan Mohammadzadeh Alajujeh, Thomas Blaschke and Mohsen Makki
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(14), 3407; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14143407 - 15 Jul 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2607
Abstract
Recent improvements in earth observation technologies and Geographical Information System (GIS) based spatial analysis methods require us to examine the efficiency of the different data-driven methods and decision rules for soil salinity monitoring and degradation mapping. The main objective of this study was [...] Read more.
Recent improvements in earth observation technologies and Geographical Information System (GIS) based spatial analysis methods require us to examine the efficiency of the different data-driven methods and decision rules for soil salinity monitoring and degradation mapping. The main objective of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of the Lake Urmia drought on soil salinity and degradation risk in the plains surrounding the hyper-saline lake. We monitored the impacts of the lake drought on soil salinity by applying spatiotemporal indices to time-series satellite images (1990–2020) in Google Earth Engine environment. We also computed the soil salinity ratio to validate the results and determine the most efficient soil salinity monitoring techniques. We then mapped the soil degradation risk based on GIS spatial decision-making methods. Our results indicated that the Urmia Lake drought is leading to the formation of extensive salt lands, which impact the fertility of the farmlands. The land affected by soil salinity has increased from 2.86% in 1990 to 16.68% in 2020. The combined spectral response index, with a performance of 0.95, was the most efficient image processing method to assess soil salinity. The soil degradation risk map showed that 38.45% of the study area has a high or very high risk of degradation, which is a significant threat to food production. This study presents an integrated geoinformation approach for time-series soil salinity monitoring and degradation risk mapping that supports future studies by comparing the efficiency of different methods as state of the art. From a practical perspective, the results also provide key information for decision-makers, authorities, and local stakeholders in their efforts to mitigate the environmental impacts of lake drought and sustain the food production to sustain the 7.3 million residents. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Hazard Mapping with Google Earth Engine)
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