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An intelligent decision-making system for flood monitoring from space

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a feasibility study on intelligent image processing for flood monitoring on board satellites. The ability to detect temporal changes in images is one of the most important functions in intelligent image processing systems for hazard and disaster monitoring applications. An automatic change detection system is proposed, the purpose of which is to monitor particular areas on earth for flooding events and give warnings to the authorities accordingly. A novel solution to flood detection based on the combined use of optical multispectral imagery and global positioning system reflectometry data is introduced. A fuzzy inference engine is used in the decision-making process, which generates control signals to other subsystems on board the satellite.

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Abbreviations

ACCA:

Automatic cloud cover assessment

AFRL:

Air Force Research Laboratory

AOCS:

Attitude and orbit control system

CCD:

Charge-coupled device

CHRIS:

High resolution imaging spectrometer

COTS:

Commercial-off-the-shelf

DMC:

Disaster monitoring constellation

DSP:

Digital signal processor

EO:

Earth observation

EO-1:

NASA’s earth observing one satellite

ESA:

European Space Agency

FPGA:

Field programmable gate array

GPS:

Global positioning system

HDDR:

Hard disc data recorder

HPC-1:

High performance computing payload

LEO:

Low earth orbit

MEIS:

Meteorological earth imaging system

MSEIS:

Multi-spectral earth imaging system

NIR:

Near-infrared

PDH:

Payload data handling system

PPU:

Parallel processing unit (X-Sat)

PPU:

Payload processing unit (PROBA)

PROBA:

Project for on-board autonomy

SAR:

Synthetic aperture radar

SSDR:

Solid state data recorder

SSTL:

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd

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Acknowledgments

The provision of DMC multispectral satellite images by SSTL and DMCii is gratefully acknowledged. This research is funded by the Government of Malaysia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Engineering, Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK

    Tanya Vladimirova & Siti Yuhaniz

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  1. Tanya Vladimirova
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  2. Siti Yuhaniz
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Correspondence to Tanya Vladimirova.

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Vladimirova, T., Yuhaniz, S. An intelligent decision-making system for flood monitoring from space. Soft Comput 15, 13–24 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-009-0514-1

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