Evaluation of Polarimetric Parameters for Flood Detection Using PALSAR-2 Quad-pol Data

This study aims to evaluate the usability of polarimetric SAR measurements for discriminating water-covered area from other land cover types and to propose polarimetric parameters showing the better response to the flood. Flood-related changes in the polarimetric parameters were studied using the L-band PALSAR-2 quad-pol mode data acquired before and after the severe flood events occurred in Joso city, Japan. The experimental results showed that, among various polarimetric parameters, the HH-polarization intensity, the Shannon entropy, and the surfaces scattering component of model-based decomposition were found to be useful to discriminate water-covered areas from other land cover types. Particularly, an unsupervised change detection with the Shannon entropy provides the best result for an automated mapping of flood extents.