NSW Satellite Imagery Hub Story

SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR FLOOD IMPACT OBSERVATIONS

Using Planet basemaps near daily imagery and Planet Stories (time-lapses) to present the flood impacts to the board and wider audiences within WaterNSW

Background

NULA Flood Channel - First launched in March 2021, in response to requests for timely flood imagery for Western Sydney.  The channel was a useful one stop shop for WaterNSW incident response.

The channel has since been updated to incorporate the monthly Planet basemaps and the swipe tool.  During the 2022/23 floods, footprints and timelapses from Planet stories were added to enhance the user experience.

The timelapses made for great visualisations for the WNSW Board to understand the extent of the floods and catch an almost real time understanding of the works that were being done on the ground.

Outcomes

The Time-lapse imagery provided the board and other stakeholders within WNSW, with clear visualisation of flood extent, eliminating the need for costly ad-hoc aerial surveys.

The Nula Flood Channel - now Nula Planet - illustrates this approach: monthly basemaps establish baseline conditions, while the near-daily Planet Labs imagery supports detailed follow up investigations.  Together, these tools enable rapid,large scale environmental assessments within short timeframes. 

PlanetScope imagery acquired from near-daily satellite availability and has a resolution of 3.7m.  For more information, contact [email protected]