Abstract
Retrieval of flooding levels with High Resolution (HR) Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) images is presented in this paper. A new framework is proposed: it is based on the inversion of theoretical scattering models initially developed for not-flooded urban areas and here adapted to the flooding case. Starting from the theory, two possible retrieval approaches have been developed and are the main topic of this paper: the local Single Image Objects Aware (SIObA) and the global Two Images Area Aware (TIArA). These two approaches are conceived to be applicable under different working conditions and consequently holding different properties and reliability. For each of them a different algorithm is derived and tested, and the retrieval results validated on a meaningful dataset of HR TerraSAR-X images relevant to the Gloucestershire (UK) flooding occurred in year 2007.