FWISD: Flood and Waterfront Infrastructure Segmentation Dataset with Model Evaluations

The increasing severity of extreme weather events necessitates rapid methods for post-disaster damage assessment. Current remote sensing datasets often lack the spatial resolution required for a detailed evaluation of critical waterfront infrastructure, which is vulnerable during hurricanes. To address this limitation, we introduce the Flood and Waterfront Infrastructure Segmentation Dataset (FWISD), a new dataset constructed from high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle imagery captured after a major hurricane, comprising 3750 annotated 1024 × 1024 pixel image patches. The dataset provides semantic labels for 11 classes, specifically designed to distinguish between intact and damaged structures. We conducted comprehensive experiments to evaluate the performance of both convolution and Transformer-based models. Our results indicate that hybrid models integrating Transformer encoders with convolutional decoders achieve a superior balance of contextual understanding and spatial precision. Regression analysis indicates that the distance to water has the maximum influence on the detection success rate, while comparative experiments emphasize the unique complexity of waterfront infrastructure compared to homogenous datasets. In summary, FWISD provides a valuable resource for developing and evaluating advanced models, establishing a foundation for automated systems that can improve the timeliness and precision of post-disaster response.