GASH RIVER FLOODS, August 2003
City of TESENEY (Eritrea)


All (speckle filtered) images and damage assessment map below (processing by ParBleu Technologies Inc.) are produced in cartographic projection UTM WGS 1984 (Zone 37), at a spatial resolution of 20 meters x 20 meters.


Extent of damages

The size of the area shown is 10.0 x 12.2 kilometers.

Archive RADARSAT-1 Image (1999)RADARSAT-1 Image (24 August 2003)

The brighter areas correspond to moister soils. Therefore, the areas that went brighter in the RADARSAT-1 image acquired on August 24, 2003 show an important excess in water content with respect to the 1999 situation.
This effect affects important cultivated areas, on both sides of the Gash river.

The urban areas in the city of Teseney, denoted as "1a" and "1b" on both images (clusters of bright dots in the 1999 RADARSAT-1 image) are no longer visible on August 24, 2003. This can be interpreted as destructions due to the floods.

The agricultural area denoted as "2" on both images appears in black on the August 24, 2003. This is characteristic of a still flooded field.


Damage assessment map

The size of the area shown is 10.0 x 12.2 kilometers.
UTM geographic coordinates are indicated on the map.

Interpretation keys :

On this map, the areas exhibiting blue tones (with the exception of the mountain areas) correspond to the areas that have been flooded.

The areas exhibiting red tones correspond to soils presenting a strong excess in moisture content.
Agricultural fields located within such areas are likely to be heavily damaged.
It is clear that most part of the agricultural fields have suffered from the effect of heavy rainfall and/or floods.

On the shores of the river, areas exhibiting red tones can also correspond to sedimentation, and light blue tones can correspond to eroded terrains.

Urban areas exhibiting blue tones correspond to damages suffered by housing.
Important damages of this kind are detected in east Teseney.


Produced by PARBLEU TECHNOLOGIES Inc. under mandate of the CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY.
(Standing Offer for Disaster Management Information Products and Services; PWGSC File Number 9F028-014927/A)
Procurement of the original RADARSAT-1 SAR data: Canadian Space Agency, and Radarsat International Inc.
Original RADARSAT-1 images: Copyright Canadian Space Agency / Agence Spatiale Canadienne, 2003.

Copyright (C) PARBLEU Technologies Inc., August 2003