Next Generation Water Observing System

USRA Applies SAM 2 Fine-Tuning for Real-Time Flood and River Monitoring

The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and Meta are collaborating with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to apply a fine-tuned version of SAM 2 for automated water segmentation in drone and satellite imagery, targeting real-time flood detection and river extent mapping. The fine-tuned model replaces a labor-intensive manual digitization workflow that was a key bottleneck in rapid-response image analysis. The system integrates with PlanetScope satellite imagery and USGS 3D Hydrography data, with case studies in the Chesapeake Bay area showing promise for nationwide deployment. The collaboration also anticipates leveraging the recently released SAM 3 for unified detection, segmentation, and tracking.