Rapid extreme tropical precipitation and flood inundation mapping (flood-tropical) framework: initial testing for the 2021-2022 Malaysia flood

Tew, Yi Lin; Tan, Mou Leong; Juneng, Liew; Chun, Kwok; Hafiz bin Hassan, Mohamad; bin Osman, Sazali; Samat, Narimah; Chang, Chun Kiat; Kabir, Muhammad Humayun

Abstract

The 2021-2022 flood is one of the most serious flood events in Malaysian history, with approximately 70,000 victims evacuated daily, 54 killed and total losses were up to MYR 6.1 billion. From this devastating event, we realized the lack of extreme precipitation and flood inundation information, which is a common problem in tropical regions. Therefore, we have developed Flood-Tropical framework to provide a rapid extreme precipitation information and flood inundation mapping by utilizing (1) a cloud-computing platform, the Google Earth Engine (GEE); (2) open-sources satellite images such as Global Precipitation Mission (GPM), Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 optical; and (3) flood victim information. The preliminary results on the 2021-2022 Malaysia flood were satisfactory, as the accuracy of inundated floods was up to 70%. Overall, two precipitation peaks resulted 60000 to 70000 people mostly in Selangor and Pahang evacuated on 21 – 24 December 2021, and 10000 to 15000 people from southern Peninsular evacuated on 2 – 6 Jan 2022. Extreme daily precipitation of up to 230 mm/day was observed and resulted in an inundated area of 77.43 km² in Peninsular Malaysia. This framework can act as a useful tool for local authorities to visualize extreme precipitation and floods for rescue planning and flood management.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 4, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 7, 2022
• Publication Date: Jul 7, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 4, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 4, 2022
• Journal: ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
• Electronic ISSN: 2220-9964
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 378
• Keywords: flood; inundation mapping; Sentinel-1 SAR; Malaysia; Climate Change
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9669957
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi