Automated Damage Detection and Visualization Using High-resolution Satellite Data for Post-disaster Assessment

The focus of this study is to thoroughly exploit the capability of very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery such as IKONOS and QuickBird for disaster mitigation. An efficient automated methodology that detects damage is implemented to derive the rich information available from VHR satellite imagery. Consequently, the detected results and the VHR satellite imagery are attractively presented through a fly-over animation and visualization. The aim is to assist the field-based damage estimation and to strengthen public awareness. The available IKONOS and QuickBird data captured after the Bam, Iran earthquake in December, 2003 was employed to demonstrate the competence of our automated detection algorithm and fly-over animation/visualization. Our results are consistent with the field-based damage detected results.