The last two decades have seen a sharp rise in the wealth of data provided by remote sensing platforms both airborne and space-borne. The number of studies demonstrating the support these data can offer in hydrological and hydraulic model building, understanding and improving model structures and increase model accuracy is growing rapidly. Studies have been carried out in both rural and urban environments and at different scales. The first step involved in any work involving remotely sensed data is adequate data processing to retrieve meaningful information about hydrological parameters. These can then be integrated with models, either directly for model development and building or indirectly via assimilation for model updating or accuracy assessment. The objective of this session is to present and discuss research work that attempts to unlock the full potential of remote sensing data for improving models in hydrology and increasing our understanding of hydrological and hydrodynamic processes in both rural and urban areas.

In brief, this session will present papers on:
- Calibration and evaluation of models dealing with hydrology/hydraulics
- Assimilation in models
- Building models
- Improving model structures

More specifically for urban areas, this session will cover:
- Monitoring and modelling floods in urban water systems
- Mapping flood extent in urban areas using remote sensing data
- Modelling inundation processes in urban areas
- Urban flood management