The project

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SenSituMon

As part of the project SenSituMon, con terra, 52North and EFTAS from Münster are developing innovative methods and technologies for the generation of near-real-time information products for automated large-scale monitoring of flood areas from satellite and in situ sensor data.

   

The partners

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Project partners

Three organizations are involved as partners in the project SenSituMon:

con terra is an innovative GeoIT service company and integrates intelligent geo-IT solutions into corporate IT of private and public sector clients. Main topics are:

EFTAS is one of the leading service providers for aerial image interpretation, satellite image analysis and digital photogrammetry. Main topics:

52°North is an open research and development network in the field of geoinformatics. Main topics:

   

Associated partners

Three other organizations are involved in the project as associated partners. Members of these organizations form the core of the advisory board, which brings experience and practical requirements into the project work:

Die VdS Schadenverhütung GmbH VdS Schadenverhütung GmbH is a company of the Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft e.V. (GDV). The VdS will participate in the project as an associated partner with no budget.

Expertise: Introduce the requirements of the insurance industry to information products in the area of monitoring flooding areas.

Das Unternehmen CLAAS Headquartered in Harsewinkel, Germany, CLAAS is one of the world's leading suppliers of agricultural harvesters. CLAAS will participate in the project as an associated partner with no budget.

Expertise: The requirements of agriculture and agricultural technology for information products for monitoring flooded areas.

Der Wupperverband The Wupperverband is one of the major water management associations in North Rhine-Westphalia and will participate in the project as an associated partner without a budget.

Expertise: Providing and using hydrological in-situ sensor data in open geoinformation infrastructures.

   

The solution

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The developments are based on the requirements of insurance companies, which rely on up-to-date information on the location, intensity and duration of floods for a quick response to flood-related damage events. The new technologies should also allow a documentation of the history of the flooding.

For example, the information on the frequency and duration of the floods should support the assessment of flood risks. SenSituMon also addresses the sectors of agriculture and water management. As part of the project, the respective requirements for the monitoring of floodplains are identified and integrated into the developments.

The project SenSituMon initially relates to the territory of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In the second step, an evaluation of the scalability for Germany and Europe is carried out.

   

Copernicus-Daten nutzen

The European Earth observation program Copernicus creates a powerful infrastructure for earth observation and geoinformation services. An important part of the program is its own satellite fleet, which provides nationwide data in high temporal resolution.

The combination of radar data (Sentinel 1) and multispectral data (Sentinel 2) will provide insights into land cover and water surface detection. With the help of change detection processes, the course of a flood can be recorded.

An overview of Copernicus and its sentinels can be found here.

   

Geo-services for the insurance industry

In the case of threatened and acute flooding of inhabited areas, it is important to know when the flood is coming, which areas are affected and how long the danger will last.

On the basis of satellite and in-situ data as well as further geo-technical information, SenSituMon will develop an information service on floods and heavy rain events:

   

Detect flooding areas over a large area

An important prerequisite for a successful information service is the automatic detection of flooding areas. A prototype system is developed based on big data architecture using Sentinel 1 data in combination with classic in-situ data sources (level measurements, rain radar forecasts). The service automatically starts at certain thresholds:

In the future, data on the frequency and duration of flooding should support the assessment of flood risks.

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Reference: Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data, ESA 2016

   

Innovative products for the economy and fast help with flooding

The research results serve the project partners as a basis for further developments. All work is carried out in cooperation with the industrial and application partners.

The prototype solution will become a marketable and economically viable system once the project is completed. The innovation lies in the fully automated process chain.

If successful, the project results are of high societal relevance, as the developed analysis methods and technologies can react more quickly and efficiently to flood situations.

   

The data

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As part of the SenSituMon project, data from various sources are merged to implement automated, large-scale monitoring of flooded areas. Important sources are:

   

Sentinel data

The Sentinel satellites are ESA's Copernicus Earth Observation satellites. Sentinel-1 scans the Earth's surface with a 6 cm C-band SAR. Every six days, every point on earth can be mapped. They are able to observe the surface of the earth day and night and even through cloud layers.

Sentinel-2 has both forests and waters in view. The multispectral imager (MSI) of the Sentinel 2 satellites can generate high-resolution optical images in the visible, near and short-wave infrared range.

More information is available at ESA.

   

in-situ sensor data

In addition to the large-scale Sentinel data, SenSituMon uses in-situ sensor data. These include:

   

Open Data (NRW)

In North Rhine-Westphalia, a large number of interesting data for the project is provided free of charge. These include, for example:

   

Other technical data

In addition to the basic geodata, further technical data are used for the flood area. These include, for example, geoinformation about the water network, the flooding risks and soil maps. One example is the flood hazard map of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is available via the Geoportal.NRW.

Screenshot Reference: Image section of flood hazard map, Geoportal NRW 2018

   

Data from the Wupperverband

The Wupperverband has been operating a spatial data infrastructure (GDI) for more than 10 years as part of its integrated river basin management in the Wupper area. The Sensor Web of the Wupperverband offers fast access to measurement data from various departments. These include, in particular, meteorological data and level values, such as flood, medium and low water. The data is provided on the basis of international standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) via sensor web services such as OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS).

   

Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI)

In addition to the official and economic data, information provided by the public will be used in the SenSituMon project. The project evaluates the use of crowdsensing data on floods.

   

Events

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The SenSituMon project and the latest developments will be presented at various conferences, fairs and forums throughout the project. An up-to-date overview of the events can be found here.

Date Event Location
19. April 2018 Earth Observation & Copernicus Technologies and Solutions für User Applications. Vortrag im Workshop 7: Monitoring flooding by integrating satellite data and in-situ measurements” (A. Remke, University of Münster / 52°North) Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola Bochum
27. April 2018 Geonetzwerk Münsterland Kreishaus Steinfurt
25.-27. June 2018 Neue Perspektiven der Erdbeobachtung DLR, Köln
18.-21. September 2018 INSPIRE Konferenz 2018 Antwerpen, Belgien
27.-29. November 2018 Nationales Forum für Fernerkundung und Copernicus BMVI Berlin
05.-06. December 2018 Großräumiges Hochwassermonitoring – Möglichkeiten, Grenzen, Chancen der Fernerkundung BafG Koblenz
08. May 2019 Copernicus meets Galileo - Erdbeobachtung - Navigation - GeoIT THGA Bochum
30. September 2019 - 02. October 2019 Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress DLR, Darmstadt
12.-13. November 2019 2. Symposium Neue Perspektiven der Erdbeobachtung DLR, Köln

   

Contact

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If you would like to contact us, please use one of the following links to the project partners.

con terra GmbH

52° North Initiative for Geospatial Open Source Software GmbH

EFTAS Fernerkundung Technologietransfer GmbH

   

Supported by: on the basis of a decision by German Bundestag

   

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