Recent advances in remote sensing of precipitation and soil moisture products for riverine flood prediction

In this chapter the recent advances in remote sensing for flood prediction are discussed. Remote sensing methods are providing different datasets and products, also operational, useful for improving our capability of monitoring and predicting floods. In this chapter, the two most important variables to be considered for the prediction of floods are analyzed, i.e., precipitation and soil moisture. For these two variables, the challenges and future directions to be addressed for the full exploitation of the satellite precipitation and soil moisture products are identified. Although a lot of work has been done, the authors underline the need of making scientists and end-users aware of the availability and potential of satellite observations. The need to foster a strict collaboration between the remote sensing community (data developers) and the communities of data users (e.g., hydrologists, agronomists) in order to fully exploit satellite datasets in real-world applications is stressed.