Building Damage Detection of the 2003 Bam, Iran Earthquake Using Quickbird Images

A strong earthquake with magnitude 6.5 struck the city of Bam in the southeast Iran on December 26, 2003. The earthquake brought massive destruction to the city and its surrounding rural areas. The earthquake caused the deaths of approximately more than 26,000 residents and injured about 30,000. QuickBird captured a clear image of Bam on January 3, 2004, eight days after the event. The city was also observed by QuickBird on September 30, 2003, about three months before the event. In this paper, using the pre-event image, the location of individual buildings was registered on GIS and the city blocks surrounded by major roads were assigned. Then, the visual damage inspection of buildings based on the European Macroseismic Scale was carried out building by building, comparing the pre-event and post-event images. The result of the damage inspection was compared with field survey data, and the accuracy and usefulness of the high-resolution satellite images in damage detection was investigated.