RII Track-4:@NASA: Enhancing Flood Detection and Mapping by Using PolSAR, Metaheuristic, and Deep Learning Algorithms

洪水是世界上最致命的灾害之一，也是对生命、财产、经济和环境造成最常见和最频繁的自然灾害。迫切需要对洪灾地区进行准确和快速的测绘，以改进对洪灾的反应和恢复、水资源管理、有效的土地管理和减轻风险的努力。鉴于极端天气事件更加频繁，探测到洪泛区应迅速加快灾害应对，并最大限度地取得减灾工作的成功。目前，在利用高分辨率合成孔径雷达(SAR)数据准确、快速地绘制洪泛区地图方面存在着知识空白。研究基础设施改进Track-4 EPSCoR研究人员(RII Track-4)项目将为夏威夷大学的一名副教授提供奖学金，并为一名博士后研究员提供培训。这项工作将与NASA马歇尔太空飞行中心(MSFC)的研究人员合作进行。这项研究为利用高分辨率的合成孔径雷达数据准确、快速地检测洪涝地区提供了一个最先进的框架。这项研究的成果将惠及不同的利益相关者群体，包括水文学家、政府机构和承包商、保险供应商、土地开发商、社区规划师和生活在洪水易发地区的个人。教育活动旨在激励未被充分代表的高中生和本科生攻读科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域的高级学位，并改善研究生的教育。将制作和传播视频，以扩大公众对该奖学金对服务不足的美国太平洋岛民的好处的认识和欣赏。该奖学金的主要目标是通过追求四个具体目标来改变首席研究员(PI)S的研究轨迹，并使他的家乡机构和司法管辖区受益：1)与NASA马歇尔太空飞行中心的东道主建立牢固的伙伴关系：PI将对东道主进行四次合作访问，以推动他的项目并与东道主建立长期合作关系。东道主还将两次访问PI的机构，共同为博士后研究人员提供建议，并为利益相关者举办研讨会；2)通过开发和验证最先进的计算工具，促进基于SAR的洪水制图的知识：PI和博士后研究人员将处理与四个洪水事件相关的SAR图像，通过元启发式算法找到它们的最佳极化SAR(PolSAR)分解，并使用深度剩余U网模型检测洪泛区；3)促进在水文学、遥感和自然灾害领域对贫困学生的教育：国际和平研究所还将让贫困学生参与与该奖学金有关的研究活动，以提高他们的批判性思维能力。预期的结果是培养下一代科学家在水文学和自然灾害中使用科学计算工具，并填补少数族裔学生在地球科学领域的劳动力缺口，以及4)在洪水期间创建有效的灾害应对策略：协调一个利益相关者工作组制定协议，根据该奖学金绘制的洪水地图可供地方和州应急管理人员使用，以减轻洪水对生活在沿海社区的未被充分代表的人口的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Floods are among the deadliest disasters and the most common and frequent natural hazards to life, property, the economy, and the environment worldwide. There is a vital need for an accurate and quick mapping of flooded areas to improve response to and recovery from floods, water resources management, effective land management, and risk mitigation efforts. Given the more frequent extreme weather events, detection of flooded areas should be quick to expedite the disaster response and maximize the success of mitigation efforts. Currently, there is a knowledge gap in the accurate and fast mapping of flooded areas with high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. This Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-4 EPSCoR Research Fellows (RII Track-4) project will provide a fellowship to an Associate Professor and training for a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii. This work will be conducted in collaboration with researchers at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). This fellowship provides a state-of-the-art framework for the precise and rapid detection of flooded areas with high-resolution SAR data. The results from this fellowship will be beneficial for a diverse group of stakeholders, including hydrologists, government agencies and contractors, insurance providers, land developers, community planners, and individuals living in flood-prone areas. The educational activities are designed to motivate underrepresented high school and undergraduate students to pursue advanced degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and improve graduate students’ education. Videos will be created and disseminated to broaden public awareness and appreciation of the benefits of this fellowship for underserved U.S. Pacific Islanders.The main goal of this fellowship is to transform the Principal Investigator (PI)’s research trajectory and benefit his home institution and jurisdiction by pursuing four specific objectives: 1) Building a strong partnership with his host at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: The PI will make four collaborative visits to the host site to advance his project and create a long-term collaborative relationship with the host. The host will also visit the PI’s institution twice to co-advise the postdoctoral researcher and present a seminar for stakeholders; 2) Advancing the knowledge of SAR-based flood mapping by developing and validating state-of-the-art computational tools: The PI and postdoctoral researcher will process SAR images related to four flood events, find their optimum polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) decompositions via metaheuristic algorithms, and use the deep Residual U-Net model to detect flooded areas; 3) Promoting education of underserved students in the field of hydrology, remote sensing, and natural hazards: The PI will also engage underserved students in research activities related to this fellowship to enhance their critical thinking skills. The expected outcomes are to prepare the next generation of scientists to use scientific computing tools in hydrology and natural hazards, and close the workforce gap for minority students in geoscience, and 4) Creating effective disaster response strategies during a flood: Coordinating a working group of stakeholders to create protocols by which the flood maps from this fellowship can be used by local and state emergency managers to mitigate the impacts of floods on underrepresented populations living in coastal communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.