## 1 Introduction
Moreover, disaster management authorities can activate satellite-based emergency response mechanisms such as the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) which are rapid mapping services performed on-demand in case of severe events [[[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273)]([https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273)) and [[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems/emergency-management-service-mapping](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems/emergency-management-service-mapping)]([https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems/emergency-management-service-mapping](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems/emergency-management-service-mapping))]. Despite strengths of radar sensors compared to optical systems, there are challenges in identifying inundations and fluctuations of water levels. Roughening of the water body, created by heavy rainfall or wind can cause backscattering of the radar signal and prevent inundated areas to be possibly highlighted. Furthermore, SAR systems are side-looking along a radar beam's line of sight (LOS) which is inclined of a certain angle (off-nadir angle) with respect to the Nadir direction; thus, some geometrical distortions (i.e., radar shadowing, layover and foreshortening) arise from the combination of the satellite acquisition angles and the local morphological slopes. In particular, the radar shadowing can determine difficulties in mountainous areas since reliefs can create anomalous dark areas within the radar image which can be water-lookalikes pixels as false positive misclassified as water [2]. Finally, minimal variations of water levels cannot be detected due to the medium spatial resolution of the SAR images (i.e., the ground resolution in azimuth x range is about 20 m \(\times\) 4 m for sensors that acquire in the microwave C-band). Optical data can reach higher spatial accuracy even if different resolutions are achieved in different spectral bands ranging from the visible spectrum through to shortwave infrared. Nevertheless, as already pointed out, optical sensors are based on \"passive\" remote sensing devices that capture the solar reflectance of the earth and thus are unable to penetrate cloud cover. Nowadays, the use of ESA (European Space Agency) satellites Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 optical data provide global, systematic scenes worldwide. Costless acquisitions have reduced technical limitations and time-consuming efforts in tasking and delivering satellite images for water surfaces and overflows mapping. Thus, free access and download, fine spatial resolution (i.e., 10 m and 14 x 5 m in Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 scenes, respectively) and reduced revisit time (up to 5 and 6 days, respectively) have significantly improved and enlarged the utility and efficiency of satellite EO data within the risk management applications. On March 3, 2018 heavy rain and snow melting caused significant flooding and landslides in the northwestern part of the Albanian national territory and Copernicus EMS service was promptly requested to quickly understand the size of the event. The Shkoder district was the most affected area because of the Drin and Buna (Bojana) Rivers overflowing and the inundation of the Shkoder plain from the lake level raising. A total number of 25 delineation maps were produced by means of pre- and post-event images from Sentinel-1, RADARSAT-2 and COSMO-SkyMed satellites constellations to semi-automatically detect the inundated areas at 1:25,000 and 1:30,000 scales [see: [[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273)]([https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR273)) and [[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems)]([https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems](https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems))]. In this paper, we firstly provide an overview of the urbanistic framework of the Shkoder urban area (North Albania) and its hydrological hazards.