52: Satellite Tracking Reveals Increased Global Population Exposure to Floods (2000–2018). Professor Beth Tellman (Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Cloud to Street; Professor at the University of Arizona geography) discusses her peer-reviewed study, pu
Update: 2025-11-05
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Satellite Tracking Reveals Increased Global Population Exposure to Floods (2000–2018). Professor Beth Tellman (Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Cloud to Street; Professor at the University of Arizona geography) discusses her peer-reviewed study, published in Nature magazine, using satellite imaging from NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites, equipped with the MODIS optical sensor, to track global flood events. This systematic mapping provides hard data of actual events, augmenting the global flood database, covering 913 observed flood events between 2000 and 2018. Her research identified an increase of up to 24% in the proportion of the population exposed to floods, indicating people are moving faster into flood plains than the general population growth rate. Limitations of the data include satellites being blocked by cloud cover and difficulty tracking sudden events like dam breaks or pluvial events. A significant concern is the underreporting bias of damaging floods in regions like sub-Saharan Africa.
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