Investigating flood susceptible areas in inaccessible regions using remote sensing and geographic information systems

Abstract

Every summer, North Korea (NK) suffers from floods, resulting in decreased agricultural production and huge economic loss. Besides meteorological reasons, several factors can accelerate flood damage. Environmental studies about NK are difficult because NK is inaccessible due to the division of Korea. Remote sensing (RS) can be used to delineate flood inundated areas in inaccessible regions such as NK. The objective of this study was to investigate the spatial characteristics of flood susceptible areas (FSAs) using multi-temporal RS data and digital elevation model data. Such study will provide basic information to restore FSAs after reunification. Defining FSAs at the study site revealed that rice paddies with low elevation and low slope were the most susceptible areas to flood in NK. Numerous sediments from upper streams, especially streams through crop field areas on steeply sloped hills, might have been transported and deposited into stream channels, thus disturbing water flow. In conclusion, NK floods may have occurred not only due to meteorological factors but also due to inappropriate land use for flood management. In order to mitigate NK flood damage, reforestation is needed for terraced crop fields. In addition, drainage capacity for middle stream channel near rice paddies should be improved.

Bridging the Semantic Gap between Land Tenure and EO Data: Conceptual and Methodological Underpinnings for a Geospatially Informed Analysis

“…Many studies using EO data for North Korea have been proposed for monitoring land use and land cover (LULC) over the Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 255 7 of 26 past several decades (for example, [51][52][53][54][55]). Furthermore, a number of government institutes and think-tanks have already established different types of thematic maps in North Korea using EO data (e.g., agricultural maps; deforestation maps; land cover maps, etc.).…”

Tree Species Classification Using Hyperion and Sentinel-2 Data with Machine Learning in South Korea and China

“…North Korea is suffering from extreme forest degradation due to food and energy shortages [1][2][3]. Degraded and deforested lands are vulnerable to natural disasters, such as landslides and floods, which not only cause environmental damage, but also destroy agricultural infrastructure [1][2][3]. This results in a vicious cycle of degradation in the forest by woodcutting to address food and fuel shortages.…”

Flood Mapping Using Multi-Source Remotely Sensed Data and Logistic Regression in the Heterogeneous Mountainous Regions in North Korea

“…The inundations occurred mainly in a lower-order stream (1 and 2; 37.17%) and middle-order stream (3, 4 and 5; 58.61%). Therefore, it is once again confirmed that the DNS is an important factor in delineating FDAs in NK [17].…”

“…Thus, the nearest-feature method of GRASS GIS 7.0.3 was used to delineate the nearest stream orders of FDAs and thereby determine whether flooding occurs in the mainstream or its branches. This information can be used to establish an improvement scheme [17]. The DEM was used to determine the stream order according to Hack's stream ordering method [49,50] using GRASS GIS 7.0.3.…”