The independent service validation in GMES RESPOND: The flood validation exercise

This article is aimed at providing a detailed description of the Flood Validation Exercise organised by the Independent Service Validation Group of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) RESPOND project. The aims of the validation exercise were: (1) providing a practical example of validation procedures in the frame of the GMES Emergency Response services; (2) executing a full-scale validation exercise able to cope with the requirements of an emergency service; and (3) better understanding the performances and limitations of Earth observation services for Flood Damage Mapping. This validation exercise is a first step of the main task to define the whole validation process for GMES services. When this is achieved, there will be knowledge concerning how well services meet the service specifications derived from the user needs. The present exercise has the purpose of gathering this knowledge. The output of this validation exercise can be used to characterise and qualify the performance and timeliness of Crisis and Damage Mapping Services. This paper summarises the methodology for the flood exercise validation and the results of product validation and inter-comparison.