Flood Apex Program: Utilizing the Landsat Mission and Spectral Indices to Automate Flood Extent Mapping Fact Sheet

Despite flood mitigation and prevention efforts being a priority in the United States, floods cause more than $6 billion in damages and approximately 140 fatalities a year. This makes floods the leading cause of losses from natural disasters. It is important to develop accurate flood inundation maps for disaster relief efforts and for the creation of flood-plain management regulations. Monitoring floods through traditional ground surveying is expensive, time-consuming, and resource intensive. Newly available space-borne and airborne observations provide a cost-effective method for evaluating flood events.