FloodScan Interactive Interface Accounts

Create a free account with a valid e-mail address here: GO TO FLOODSCAN  Note: Passwords must be at least 10 characters including at least one lower case, upper case, numeric, and symbol character.

FloodScan: Near real-time and historical flood mapping

AER’s FloodScan service provides daily maps of large-scale, inland flooding from 1998 to the present based on satellite remote sensing technology.

floodscan_web_ui_20230313_2.pngFeatures

  • Regional Coverage: Coast-to-coast coverage for Africa, South America, North America (to 55°N latitude), and Asia-Australia (to 55°N latitude and 50°E longitude).
  • High Resolution: ~90-meter resolution everywhere. 
  • Frequent Updates: Daily updates for the entire coverage area from automated, near real-time satellite data processing systems.  
  • Historical Reach: Daily record extending back to 1998. 
  • Consistency and Objectivity: Uses one algorithm for both near real-time and historical processing. No human-in-the-loop biases.

FloodScan monitors continent-sized areas for flooding from day and night satellite observations regardless of cloud conditions. Our algorithms combine the latest available data with prior measurements to produce best-estimate, coast-to-coast flood maps every day at ~90-m scale. FloodScan’s regional perspective and daily update cycle often makes it the first service to completely map large floods. Users can track changes in flood extent over time and get a picture of the maximum extent of multi-day floods. Backed by a 25+ year historical record, users can build custom applications and perform analytics with FloodScan data with the confidence that future products will be consistently derived using the same proven algorithms.

Product Suite

FloodScan provides primary and secondary products designed to meet a variety of users’ needs.  FloodScan’s primary data products—SFED and MFED—map large scale, inland river flooding well but are less likely to depict flooding in smaller floodplains and near coastlines. FloodScan’s secondary products—NDT-SFED and NDT-MFED—are designed to map flooding in areas missed by SFED and MFED for users able to manage higher false positive rates. FloodScan’s derivative data products include multi-day compositing, flood depth estimation, and area integration for ease of use and insights into flood severity. FloodScan data packages include all currently available data products for one price, giving users the flexibility to use one or more products at their discretion. The FloodScan Data Users Guide includes guidance for selecting a product set appropriate for any application.

Primary Data Products

Product
Details
Description

SFED
  • Standard flood extent depiction
  • Flooding at ~90-meter scale
  • Updated daily

Designed for flood monitoring applications that prioritize:

  • low false positive rates for large scale flooding
  • algorithmic consistency over long time scales and large regions

MFED
  • Maximum daily flood extent depiction
  • Flooding at ~90-meter scale
  • Updated daily

Designed for disaster response applications that prioritize:

  • timely updates
  • maximum flood extent depiction

 

Secondary Data Products

Product
Details
Description

NDT-SFED
  • SFED without a detection threshold
  • Possible flooding at ~90-meter scale
  • Updated daily
  • For use with SFED/MFED
  • Designed to allow users with resilience to false positives to map possible smaller floods or marginal areas of larger floods excluded by SFED/MFED algorithm noise filtering

NDT-MFED
  • MFED without a detection threshold
  • Possible flooding at ~90-meter scale
  • Updated daily

 

Multi-Day and Area Aggregate Data Products
Derived from MFED or SFED

Product
Details
Description

ACC

Accumulated flood extent over user-specified time period

Combines primary/secondary products and masks into a single dataset for ease of use

NDAYS

Number of days flooded over user-specified time period

Useful as an indicator of flood severity or detection confidence

DEPTH

Maximum flood water depth over user-specified time period

Useful as an indicator of flood severity or detection confidence

AREA

Area aggregate fractional flooding at ~10x10-km scale (daily)

     Use for regional/historical questions, e.g.:

  • locate areas most affected by flooding
  • compute flood return frequency
  • find examples of past floods

 

Order FloodScan Data Through the Web Interface

Users can conveniently customize a data package for purchase and download through the FloodScan interactive web interface. Registration is free and only requires a valid e-mail address. Use the interface to browse the near real-time and historical FloodScan data record. To place a product order, pick dates of interest and hold control (or command on a Mac) to click-and-drag and select latitude-longitude bounds. Estimated pricing is automatically displayed. Select a file format and click “Request Data”. You’ll receive an e-mail to begin a safe and secure purchasing process through the AER Store. The FloodScan interface delivers packages containing SFED, MFED, SFED-AREA, LWMASK, and WWMASK. Check back as more products are added or Contact Us for a custom order including the full product suite.

Web Interface Pricing

FloodScan products are priced per unit area when ordered through the web interface:

 
Current Data (<90 days old)*
Older Data (≥ 90 days)

 

Price per 100 km2

Minimum per order

Price per 100 km2

Minimum per order

Most regions

$1.00

$100

$0.50

$50

Africa

$0.10

$50

$0.025

$25

* Current Data pricing applies unless the selected period is fully historical.

Save Time: Buy Prepackaged Flood Maps

The FloodScan Store offers ready-to-purchase data packages for historically significant flood events including 2017’s Hurricane Harvey and 2018’s Hurricane Florence.

Packages include:

  • Daily primary and secondary FloodScan products in GeoTiff format for the duration of the event
  • Convenient derivative products (ACC, NDAYS, DEPTH) summarizing the full event

 

Download a free sample FloodScan Package.

Contact AER to request a custom package.

 

 

 

Bulk Order and Subscription Pricing

Bulk orders for the full FloodScan historical record, 1998-present, are priced per region:

 

Bulk price

North America

$25,000

Africa

$10,000

South America

$10,000

Asia-Australia

$30,000

Full Coverage

$75,000

 

Bulk orders include all the products available through the web interface – SFED, MFED, SFED-AREA, LWMASK, and WWMASK – plus NDT-SFED, NDT-MFED, and MFED-AREA.

Purchasers of Full Coverage bulk data have the option to buy a subscription to the FloodScan Web Coverage Service (WCS). Subscribers get immediate access to the latest data for all FloodScan regions plus annual bulk data package updates. Subscriptions are priced at $10,000 for the first year after a Full Coverage purchase and $25,000 per year thereafter. Contact Us for discounted pricing for researchers and non-profit institutions.

Technical Documentation