Information for Using Flood Observatory Flood Inundation (“AllFloods”) and ReferenceWater GIS Files
Draft March 15, 2016
1). All files are in MapInfo format (four files each, .DAT, .ID, .MAP, and .TAB). There are many available programs for translation into .shp format.
2). All files are in Plate Carree (latitude and longitude in decimal degrees) projection, and WGS84 datum.
3). Many files may extend geographically far outside the area affected by this flood event. 
4). No masking has been performed for the inundation files: these are total water extents mapped on a particular dates. They may be masked by superimposing Reference Water GIS polygons that are provided in a separate folder.
5). The included files are nearly the entire Flood Observatory collection for this area (specifically, from our 090W040N map sheet in our global series, 2000-present. Because this flood event spans also the 100W040N map sheet, some floods observed and mapped to the west are not included.
6). File names and water classification algorithms used varied over this time period. The date is always shown, either as a Julian date (e.g., 0302016=January 30, 2016) or as a calendar date (e.g. 20160313 is March 13, 2016). The sensor name is commonly shown (e.g., Modis Terra, “t” or Aqua, “a”, LS7 for Landsat 7, SPOT, etc.).
7). To choose the most recent information, for the present flood event, note the flood event dates and open only appropriate files.
9). Further information on water classification algorithms and file name decoding will be added here soon and also in response to end user queries.