Challenges and Strategies for Analyzing Urban Flood Resilience Using Earth Observation Data

Urban flood resilience has become a critical research focus as cities face increasing flood risks due to climate change, rapid urbanization, and population growth. Earth Observation (EO) technologies support flood resilience by providing essential information across flood preparedness, response, recovery, and adaptation. However, translating EO data into meaningful indicators of urban resilience remains challenging due to issues such as data gaps, classification uncertainties, and difficulties integrating EO data with socio-economic factors. This chapter examines the potential of EO data for urban flood resilience, addressing key challenges in data availability, quality, and processing. As part of this analysis, we present a preliminary assessment of Sentinel-1's temporal coverage of flood events recorded in the EM-DAT database between 2017 and 2024, revealing substantial gaps in acquisition timing and regional coverage, particularly across Africa and South America, that constrain its ability to capture peak flood extents. Building on these findings, the chapter highlights emerging strategies for addressing these limitations, including multi-source data integration, AI-assisted analysis, and stronger links between EO observations and socioeconomic information. Ultimately, advancing urban flood resilience requires interdisciplinary frameworks that combine EO data with social, economic, and institutional knowledge to support more effective and equitable resilience planning.