Billawan12/suddwatch

Operational flood detection and humanitarian alert system for South Sudan using Sentinel‑1 SAR # 🌊 SuddWatch ### Operational Flood Detection & Humanitarian Alert System for South Sudan **SWE3090: Software Project 1 · Summer Semester, 2026** **United States International University – Africa · School of Science and Technology** --- *Student:* **Madut Chan** · *ID:* **671336** *Supervisor:* **Prof. Paul Okanda** --- --- ## Abstract South Sudan is experiencing a deepening humanitarian crisis as annual floods displace hundreds of thousands of people across Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile states. The core problem is not a lack of satellite data but the failure to convert that data into actionable alerts that reach vulnerable communities before floodwaters arrive. Current flood assessments reach humanitarian responders three to seven days after a flood occurs, and more than half of displaced households receive no warning at all. **SuddWatch** bridges this critical information gap. The system automatically downloads free ESA Sentinel-1 C-band SAR imagery, detects flood extent using a six-stage classification pipeline, quantifies human impact against WorldPop 2020 population data and OpenStreetMap infrastructure, and dispatches SMS alerts to village chiefs and HTML situation reports to UN coordinators — all within a 30–60 minute SLA from satellite pass to alert delivery. --- ## Table of Contents 1. Project Background 2. Problem Statement 3. Project Objectives 4. System Architecture 5. Technical Implementation 6. Dashboard 7. Installation & Setup 8. Running the System 9. Testing & Evaluation 10. Repository Structure 11. Key Design Decisions 12. Limitations & Future Work 13. Data Sources 14. Acknowledgements --- ## 1. Project Background Greater Upper Nile — comprising Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile states — sits at the heart of the Sudd, one of Africa's largest wetlands (30,000–40,000 km² in the dry season, expanding to over 80,000 km² at peak flood). The White Nile floodplains have gradients less than 0.1%, meaning floodwaters spread laterally for …