ABSTRACT:Panchromatic black and white, color, and color infrared photographs and thermal infrared imagery are compared for a capability to show flood boundaries. In open agricultural and urban areas, these boundaries are easily delineated on all types of am. Boundaries are more difficult to see in wooded areas. In March, hardwood trees are dormant, but black and white photographs and color photographs show only the tops of these trees. Color infrared photographs in January and March have a distinctive color or tone in inundated woods; the limit of this tone is the flood boundary. Daytime thermal infrared imagery in March shows that inundated woods are cooler than dry land but warmer than open water. After about April 1, both color infrared photography and thermal infrared imagery show only the top of the tree canopy and do not reflect underlying flood water. Inundated areas can be delineated easily on ERTS satellite imagery from December through March. On imagery from May 4–5, 1973, however, most inundation boundaries had to be drawn as dashed lines; the tree canopy obscures flood waters in wooded areas. Despite this problem, the results of mapping flood boundaries on May imagery are believed to be reasonable for the scale of the imager
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