I used Google Earth Engine to produce a map of Omaha NE flooding of March 2019 based on the EU's Sentinel-2 image. Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a cloud-based platform for planetary-scale environmental data analysis. The main components of the Earth Engine are: Datasets: A petabyte-scale archive of publicly available remotely sensed imagery and other data. As a cloud-based geospatial analysis platform, the powerful tool of GEE enables users to visualize and analyze satellite images of our planet. Scientists and non-profits use Earth Engine for remote sensing research, predicting disease outbreaks, natural resource management, and more. Also students can access this information to join the discussion and become data scientists themselves.
Some background of this flooding event: the Midwestern United States experienced major floods in the Spring of 2019, primarily along the Missouri River and its tributaries in Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas. The Mississippi River also saw flooding, although starting later and ending earlier. The 2019 January-to-May period was the wettest on record for the U.S., with multiple severe weather outbreaks through May in the Midwest, High Plains, and South exacerbating the flooding and causing additional damage. Throughout late May and early June, rain in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri caused every site on the Mississippi River to record a top-five crest. At least three people in Iowa and Nebraska have died. Nearly 14 million people in the midwestern and southern states have been affected by the flooding, which the New York Times has called "The Great Flood of 2019". New record river levels were set in 42 different locations. Although $12 billion in aid was made "available to farmers who lost money due to the trade war" the previous year, Reuters reported that the USDA had "no program to cover the catastrophic and largely uninsured stored-crop losses from the widespread flooding." At least 1 million acres of U.S. farmland, in nine major grain-producing states, have flooded.
