Within the framework of a Pilot Project, SERTIT has investigated the usefulness of high temporal ERS-1 SAR data acquisitions for flood detection and monitoring. The 1993 and 1994 floods in the Camargue region (France) are taken as the subject matter of the case study. An extensive data base has been developed which is composed of satellite data and exogenous data. The satellite data include twenty ERS-1 SAR scenes acquired essentially with a 3 day cycle before, during and after the floods. The detection and cartography of flooded zones is produced by the photo-interpretation of multi-temporal ERS- I images together with auxiliary information and change detection techniques (colour composition, ratioing and differencing). The analysis of the detected flood evolution maps enables the understanding of flood dynamics. In addition, by taking the opportunity of the large number of georeferenced multi-temporal ERS-1 SAR scenes, a high radiometric resolution ERS SAR image was produced by the temporal merging of eighteen ERS- 1 SAR images showing the usefulness of multi-temporal SAR data in cartography. These results lead to the interesting prospective of applications of high temporal acquisition SAR data in the forecasting, monitoring, impact and understanding of catastrophic natural events.